VOX, by Christina Dalcher Silence can be deafening.Jean McClellan spends her time in almost complete silence, limited to just one hundred words a day. Any more, and a thousand volts of electricity will course through her veins.Now the new government is in power, everything has changed. But only if you’re a woman.Almost overnight, bank accounts are frozen, passports are taken away and seventy million women lose their jobs. Even more terrifyingly, young girls are no longer taught to read or write.For herself, her daughter, and for every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice. This is only the beginning… VOX is...
Emily loved Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing: It is a beautiful coming of age story that is filled with love and heart break and just a wee bit of murder. The story follows a young girl Kya growing up alone in a marsh in South Carolina during the 50’s and 60’s. When the body of a local boy is found close to her home the outcome could change her life forever. The story begins when Kya is a child and her family abandons her in the marsh. She gets labelled the ‘weird marsh girl’ by the town and gets...
The cover of Chris Lee’s THE BILLION DOLLAR BONFIRE features a photo by Brian High in which Allan Hubbard is walking on the deserted beach south of Oamaru where Shag River meets the ocean. Hubbard told High that he felt at peace on the beach and that he could imagine that this was where he would live out the last chapter of his life. Reality is stranger than fiction because six years later Hubbard dies on that beach. The helicopter that had lifted him from the car crash he was in, interrupted its flight to Dunedin because Hubbard was failing....
In MACHINES LIKE ME the scientist Alan Turing did not die in 1954 but is instead instrumental to fast-forwarding the digital age. This novel is set in 1982 and Margaret Thatcher’s Britain has just lost – yes lost – the Falkland War. In this alternative version of the universe, our main protagonist Charlie has foolishly squandered his mother’s inheritance on one of the twenty-five first synthetic humans, twelve Adams and thirteen Eves. Charlie would have preferred an Eve, but they were sold out first. In the course of the novel we see how Charlie and Adam relate to each other....
On Easter Saturday, 20 April 2019, Petronella’s Gallery and Bookstore hosted Owen Marshall and his wife Jackie Jones. Owen read from his latest novel Pearly Gates. This novel about a small-town, South Island mayor has the locals wondering if it is a roman-à-clef. But that is not essential to the story. Owen Marshall is the king of characterisation and Pearly Gates is no different. The subtle workings of the rise and fall of Pat (Pearly) Gates gives this book a universal flavour in a beautiful, familiar setting. After the reading, who should walk past the shop but Graham Smith, mayor...
GUEST AUTHOR GAVIN BISHOP What an honour it was to have children’s book creator Gavin Bishop visit Petronella’s Gallery and Bookstore. On the last Friday of the summer holidays Gavin travelled to Lake Tekapo to talk about this two latest books. Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story is a sumptuously illustrated story of New Zealand. It explores the defining moments of our history from the Big Bang right through what might happen tomorrow. His newest book: Cook’s Cook, The Cook who Cooked for Captain Cook is a beautiful children’s book full of information drawn from extensive research alongside evocative illustrations. Its...
