Spanning the decade from the mid-seventies, this selection explores the diverse directions New Zealand short fiction has taken since it left the realism of the farm in search of the surrealism of the modern city. This volume also reflects the emergence of women writers in recent years.

New Zealand Short Stories Fourth Series

Literature & Fiction

Janet-Frame

C.K. Stead

Fiona Kidman

KERI HULME

Maurice Duggan

Patricia Gracae

Witi Ihimaera, et. al.

Maurice, Gee

Short Stories & Anthologies

Oxford University Press

Mandarin Summer

Picador

In the Clear Light: A Novel

In this book Fiona Kidman explores self-discovery achieved through, and often in spite of, social and family ties. Clara’s struggle to assert her independence against a background of oppression and despair is mirrored in the turmoil that lies beneath the blacked-out Auckland. This novel of rare beauty and uncommon insight is one no reader will ever forget. The scene is Auckland during the Second World War. In the warrenlike old tenement the residents call Paddy’s Puzzle, Clara Bentley awaits the arrival of Ambrose, her black lover, an American marine. She also waits for the bomb that might fall when the air raid siren sounds at night. She waits for visits from the strange inhabitants of the Puzzle―prostitutes; blackmarketeers; old Ma Hollis, who helps her keep body and soul together; and a host of others. She waits, too, for the culmination of an illness that has weakened her irremediably.

In the clear light: A novel

Norton

A classic, prize-winning novel about an epic migration and a lone woman haunted by the past in frontier Waipu. In the 1850s, a group of settlers established a community at Waipu in the northern part of New Zealand. They were led there by a stern preacher, Norman McLeod. The community had followed him from Scotland in 1817 to found a settlement in Nova Scotia, then subsequently to New Zealand via Australia. Their incredible journeys actually happened, and in this winner of the New Zealand Book Awards, Fiona Kidman breathes life and contemporary relevance into the facts by creating a remarkable fictional story of three women entangled in the migrations - Isabella, her daughter Annie and granddaughter Maria. McLeod's harsh leadership meant that anyone who ran counter to him had to live a life of secrets. The 'secrets' encapsulated the spirit of these women in their varied reactions to McLeod's strict edicts and connect the past to the present and future.

Book of Secrets

Women's Fiction

William Heinemann Australia

A breed of women

Parenting & Relationships

Family Relationships

Macmillan

A superbly written novel offering an intriguing interpretation of one of the world’s greatest aviators, the glamorous and mysterious Jean Batten.
Jean Batten became an international icon in the 1930s. A brave, beautiful woman, she made a number of heroic solo flights across the world. The newspapers couldn’t get enough of her; and yet she suddenly slipped out of view, disappearing to the Caribbean with her mother and dying in obscurity in Majorca, buried in a pauper’s grave.
Fiona Kidman’s enthralling novel delves into the life of this enigmatic woman, exploring mysteries and crafting a fascinating exploration of early flying, of mothers and daughters, and of fame and secrecy.

Infinite Air, The

Genre Fiction

Bolinda Audio

All Day at the Movies

Literary

A collection of six stories linked by a central issue in the lives of the main characters, the defining incident that shapes their futures: the disappearance of a brother; an illegitimate child born to a young girl; a woman caught between the deep friendship of two men; a lost love; a betrayal.

A Needle in the Heart

Vintage

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Books by Fiona Kidman