Molly Make-Believe

New Zealand Listener

Article

What Lies Beyond

May 23, 2021

Karl Stead, poet, critic, fiction writer and memoirist, keeps saying he has been told he could cark it at any moment – a matter of his wonky heart – then he doesn’t cark it at any moment. He is 88. I think he will go on not carking it until he is 99,

NPR

Article

For December, 3 Romantic Holiday Escapes

Dec 11, 2018

Get away from holiday stress and crummy weather with our romance picks for December. We've got great contemporary stories and a charming inversion of that classic Regency trope, the forced engagement.

The Oldie

Article

RANT Christmas cards

Dec 15, 2021

I was always a diligent and loyal dispatcher of Christmas cards until a few years ago. It suddenly seemed to me a bit pathetic to keep sending a seasonal message to my old geography teacher, whom I’d not seen since the seventies. The Christmas-card l

Fairlady

Article

Books

Jan 20, 2020

Theresa’s former husband Theo has been little but a shadow in her life: he’s spent the past two decades in an institution. Now that he’s dead, she finds herself unsure how to mourn for a man she’s tried so hard to put behind her. But going through a

New Zealand Listener

Article

A Canny Canine Tale

Mar 8, 2020

Faithful hound Tassen tells the story of his adored owner’s bereavement, growing frailty, loneliness and resilience. It’s a concept so cute, you may wish to projectile vomit. Don’t despair. Norwegian writer Hans-Olav Thyvold’s novel is several motifs

The Millions

Article

Trapped in Purgatory with Stephen Dedalus and Anse Bundren

Aug 15, 2017

Get over yourself, Anse—and quit jabbering about your new teeth. The post Trapped in Purgatory with Stephen Dedalus and Anse Bundren appeared first on The Millions.

Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Article

Storytime

Oct 7, 2020

In 1865 Clorinda leaves Dublin, clutching her deceased mother’s ruby necklace bequest. In hoity-toity English spa town Bath, she refuses the pawn shop’s offer and, renting a posh hat, sells her heirloom in a society jeweller. Reinventing herself as a

The Australian Women's Weekly

Article

Story Time

Oct 7, 2020

In 1865 Clorinda leaves Dublin, clutching her deceased mother’s ruby necklace bequest. In hoity-toity English spa town Bath, she refuses the pawn shop’s offer and, renting a posh hat, sells her heirloom in a society jeweller. Reinventing herself as a

After Dinner Conversation: Philosophy

Article

Echo

Jan 10, 2024

Once, during a depressive episode, Stanley cut out thirteen small paper stars and taped them to the ceiling of his cluttered bedroom. They were made from the construction paper left over from his youth, stored away in a basket on a shelf in the basem

NPR

Article

Youthful Angst Is Fresh And Compelling In 'Last Night In Nuuk'

Jan 17, 2019

Niviaq Korneliussen's new novel follows five people in Greenland's capital Nuuk; it's a heartbreaking yet hopeful look at young, queer life in one of the most isolated places in the world.

New Zealand Listener

Article

Believe In The Wolves

Nov 13, 2023

by Paul Auster (Faber, $36.99) Three-quarters of the way through Paul Auster’s new novel, his protagonist, Sy Baumgartner, pushes aside Mysteries of the Wheel, the book he’s been working on, and starts writing an account of a trip he took to Ukrain

India Today

Article

Spiderman Meets Batman | Books

Apr 5, 2019

I remember the utter surprise and unbridled pleasure of reading Paul Zacharia's Malayalam stories in translation in the early 1990s, in a volume titled Bhaskar Patellar and Other Stories. I relived some of that pleasure as I read Zacharia's first nov