Author Archives: alysonebaker

‘I just want to be able to say I asked’ – Eloise Hay is reeling after her husband has left her for a younger woman; lacking in self-esteem she is seeing a shrink and the bottom of a lot of … Continue reading →

Sometimes I read a novel which makes me realise just how privileged my life has been – and Rich Man Road is such a novel.  It is not a literary masterpiece but the parallel stories of Olga and Pualele, two … Continue reading →

Oh dear, having read reviews of In the neighbourhood of fame after reading it, it would appear I am out of step in thinking it not well constructed and over-written.  It deals with fame, what it is, how it affects … Continue reading →

The Writers’ Festival is a rollicking good read about the six months leading up to an Auckland Writers’ Festival, the Festival itself and then the aftermath.  It is a stand-alone novel but does include some characters from the author’s previous … Continue reading →

Chappy is a family saga spanning the decades from the 1920s through the second world and into the 1980s – detailing lives, loves and losses.  Daniel is a young man feeling out of place and context in the ‘stoniness’ of … Continue reading →

The Hiding Places is a study in grief and penance – for losses and crimes both real and imagined.  I loved Robertson’s romantic trilogy starting with The Sweet Second Life of Darrell Kincaid – a series of elevated genre-referential funny … Continue reading →

The novella The Ted Dreams first appeared as an eBook and is now included in Weldon’s selection of her own short stories: Mischief.  The novella is about Phyllis, a woman with psychic abilities; a luridly tragic past and spooky identical twins. Her … Continue reading →

Catherine Lacey was born in Tupelo, Mississippi and has taught Creative Writing at Columbia University in New York.  I have reviewed Nobody is Ever Missing here because it is set in New Zealand, and also because it is extraordinary. Elyria … Continue reading →