The Well of Lost Plots
Jasper Fforde
One of the authors I discovered this year (a little late, but better late than never) was Jasper Fforde. Think Terry Pratchett for the crime-fiction set. His protagonist, Thursday Next has appeared in four novels so far. My favourite is The Well of Lost Plots, where Thursday is hiding out in an unpublished (and very bad) crime novel. She is soon embroiled in tracking down escape characters (who want holiday rights) and eavesdropping on footnoter phone conversations between characters from Anna Karenina. And that’s not even half of it.
Cloud Dreams
David Mitchell
Cloud Dreams by David Mitchell defies easy description. Composed of a series of six alternating narratives, ranging from the Chatham Islands in the 19th century to an interview notes from a post-civilisation archive. The story itself is non-linear and progresses from either end to meet in the middle, a heady mixture of satire, thriller, science fiction, and much more. Vast, intricate, and ambitious, Mitchell pulls off a balancing act that should by rights collapse under its own weight. Eventually I stopped trying to figure it out and just hung on for the ride and when it finally came together I didn’t want to get off.
The Great New Zealand Argument
Russell Brown (Ed)
This year’s election has brought the question of New Zealand identity firmly to centre stage. Russell Brown’s The Great New Zealand Argument is a timely and thought-provoking addition to the dialogue. Through essays and speeches from New Zealanders as diverse as Robin Hyde and Tze Ming Mok, you can follow the shift from British-colonial cringe to multicultural complexity, and see how little some things have changed. ‘Fretful Sleepers’, by Bill Pearson, and David Lange’s nation-defining Oxford University speech were standouts for me, but the whole collection left me both thoughtful and optimistic about our future.
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