Jim and Renata Delpe's life is in a very modern crisis. With their son, Jeff, sending text messages to his dead brother while slipping quickly into internet addiction, and with Renata engaged in a secret internet relationship with a figure she has never actually met, Jim Delpe - who has long had 'a love-hate relationship' with computers - is left with no choice but to log in himself, if the family is to be saved. In this ambitious, suspenseful and achingly human novel, set against the decline of the nuclear family and the unstoppable rise of digital relationships, In The Absence Of Heroes gives us the complex modern world, full of hard, binary choices: make one or two bad choices in a row and just see what happens . . .

No one knows 'happy endings' like romance novelist Darrell Kincaid. She's delivered eight of them to her readers with pleasure. But it's not to be with book number nine. In the act of adding the final full stop, Darrell has a revelation: it's not the ending that really matters but what comes next. Darrell now sees that when her husband Tom died (twenty-one months and three days ago, but who's counting?) she lost more than the man she loved. She lost her own 'happy ever after'. The life she expected to live has gone, vanished forever in a puff of fickle, unfair smoke. Darrell knows she has a choice. She can stay in New Zealand and live a half-life, or she can leave in search of something - perhaps someone - else. So Darrell decides upon London, the least romantic capital she knows (why set yourself up for disappointment?). Armed with Nancy Mitford's Love In A Cold Climate as her guide to proper Englishness and the ideal romantic hero, she sets out to live the sweet second life she deserves.

There has never been a New Zealand novel quite like The Parihaka Woman. Richly imaginative and original, weaving together fact and fiction, it sets the remarkable story of Erenora against the historical background of the turbulent and compelling events that occurred in Parihaka during the 1870s and 1880s. Parihaka is the place Erenora calls home, a peaceful Taranaki settlement overcome by war and land confiscation. As her world is threatened, Erenora must find within herself the strength, courage and ingenuity to protect those whom she loves. And, like a Shakespearean heroine, she must change herself before she can take up her greatest challenge and save her exiled husband, Horitana. Surprising, inventive and deeply moving, The Parihaka Woman confirms Witi Ihimaera as one of New Zealand's finest and most memorable storytellers.

"A poem is a ripple of words on water wind-huffed..." This volume showcases the finest examples of Hone's poetry, from his early triumph in No Ordinary Sun (one of the most reprinted collections in New Zealand) right up to his final works published when he was in his 80s. Also included are a handful of previously unpublished poems as well as a number translated into Maori by Pat Hohepa, Selwyn Muru and Waihoroi Shortland. This volume showcases the finest examples of Hone's poetry, from his early triumph in No Ordinary Sun (one of the most reprinted collections in New Zealand) right up to his final works published when he was in his 80s. Also included are a handful of previously unpublished poems as well as a number translated into Maori by Pat Hohepa, Selwyn Muru and Waihoroi Shortland. 'Tuwhare . . . immortalises the people he meets, knows and loves, their comings and goings and passings; he records the small happenings of his days and the large occasions of his time; he describes the land and its creatures and seasons; he observes the effects of the years and puts into words his feelings: about love and loss, faith, spirituality, justice and injustice. He is a storyteller who draws from wherever he is and whoever he is with, absorbing and reflecting texture, colour, nuance, shades of light and dark. Like Maui, he enjoys a good joke, and the joy and comedy of life are ever present.' - Janet Hunt, Tuwhare: a biography 'The last Maori Modernist . . . he bestrides two worlds: his work bends and shapes the English language with impressive virtuosity, while at the same time being rich in the lexicon of Maoritanga . . . Tuwhare is a dancing heavyweight, able to deliver a verbal knockout with a flourish.' - David Eggleton, New Zealand Listener

Fiona Kidman has a genius for peeling back the lives of ordinary people to reveal their hidden passions and complexities. In this brilliant new collection, she explores - with her customary subtlety and insight - how we are all touched and sometimes scarred by the flames of emotion - whether it be the impossible love of a pregnant woman for a married man, grief for a dead baby or loss of a young woman in mysterious circumstances. Ranging in time from the colonial period to the present day, these stories by one of New Zealand's foremost writers are beautifully crafted, intriguing and evocative. '[Her] stories remind me of those of Alice Munro. Though they are very much of a time and place they have a universal dimension.' - Booksellers News

'Dougie's story and mine is not told in the history of William Larnach. It is our private journey, and only we understand how it came about; only we know the fitness and the wonder of it.' William James Mudie Larnach's name resonates in New Zealand history - the politician and self-made man who built the famous 'castle' on Otago Peninsula. In 1891, after the death of his first two wives, he married the much younger Constance de Bathe Brandon. But the marriage that began with such happiness was to end in tragedy. The story of the growing relationship between Conny and William's younger son, Dougie, lies at the heart of Owen Marshall's subtle and compelling new novel. The socially restrictive world of late nineteenth-century Dunedin and Wellington springs vividly to life as Marshall traces the deepening love between stepmother and stepson, and the slow disintegration of the domineering yet vulnerable figure of Larnach himself. Can love ever really be its own world, free of morality and judgement and scandal? Moving, thought-provoking and superbly written, The Larnachs is a memorable piece of fiction from one of our wisest authors.