Elena catches a glimpse of her friend Jeanie Roper in a New Zealand art gallery. It is twenty-three years since Jeanie suddenly disappeared. They had been close when Jeanie lived in Samoa with her bullying husband and gentle father. But why is Jeanie hiding her identity? Elena is intrigued to discover Jeanie has a daughter who is unaware of her Samoan ancestry. There are family secrets here - possibly dangerous ones - that Elena is determined to uncover.Inheritance is a novel of contrasts: the tropical beauty and exuberance of Samoa in the 1960s; and the dark violence that arises from the conflict between truthfulness and love.

It's been 30 years since Dame Fiona Kidman's first book of poems was published, and now she is back with another, perfectly timed for her 70th birthday in March 2010. There has been renewed interest in her poetry since the recent publication of her memoirs, and this exquisitely packaged collection will not disappoint. Ranging over wide territory, from imagining her Irish grandmothers' arrival in New Zealand, to wearing Katherine Mansfield's shawl, to time spent in Greece and in her garden, the poems are by turns tender and funny, candid and brave. They bear all the hallmarks of Kidman's writing: acute observation, a telling eye for detail, a wry humour and great empathy. 

Edward Hunter is a family man with a beautiful wife and daughter, a great job, a bright future, and a very dark past. Edward's father is a man of blood. He's been in jail for twenty years and he's never coming out. Edward has struggled his entire life to put that all behind him, but it's hard when everybody knows you're the son of a serial killer. Then, a week out from Christmas, Eddie's world is turned upside-down. Suddenly he's going to need the help of his father, a man he hasn't seen since he was a boy. Is Edward destined to be just like his father, to become a man of blood?"Most people come back from New Zealand talking about the breathtaking scenery and the amazing experiences. I came back raving about Paul Cleave. These are stories that you won't forget in a while: relentlessly gripping, deliciously twisted and shot through with a vein of humour that's as dark as hell. Anyone who likes their crime fiction on the black and bloody side should move Paul Cleave straight to the top of their must-read list." - Mark Billingham.

Lying at the core of our interactions, words are both salves and weapons, they can be simple and fork-tongued. How we read, how we misinterpret each other, can reveal the nature of our society - its diversity, complexity and richness. These stories riff on this ambiguity of understanding: there are vivid scenes from our colonial past right up to the current day; a previous prime minister tries to dodge a photographer; a writer reworks a film premise over and over again; taggers express themselves in their own language; couples lock horns while strangers are brought together. There is humour, there is poignancy, there is terrific writing. This is a collection that will provoke, stimulate and delight. Differing interpretations can define and bind us, as New Zealanders have discovered with the Treaty of Waitangi. The starting-off point for this collection of short stories is a piece of text or image that is read differently by different people: be it because of ambiguity, or misapprehension, a problem of translation, or opposing perspectives or cultures. This book is not meant to explore the issues of the Treaty of Waitangi in any literal or direct way, but rather explore the human paradox that has followed from its writing 170 years ago: in trying to bring people together, words can also push them apart. This collection of entertaining stories reflects our society in provocative, humane and intriguing ways. Written by a mix of leading New Zealand writers, with diverse backgrounds, ranging from Maori to British, Irish to Polynesian, Chinese to Greek, this entertaining book of fictional stories engages creatively with the idea of ambiguity. Edited by Marco Sonzogni, who is an award-winning editor, translator and poet, a widely published academic and a lecturer in the School of Languages and Cultures at Victoria University of Wellington.The contributors are: Michelle Arathimos, Ben Brown, Ellie Catton, David Eggleton, Travis Gasper, Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Briar Grace-Smith, Charlotte Grimshaw, Peter Hawes, Tim Jones, Fiona Kidman, Tze Ming Mok, Kelly Ana Morey, Paula Morris, Sue Orr, Vincent O'Sullivan, Alice Tawhai, Apirana Taylor, Albert Wendt.

"There were two rumours surrounding my great-great-grandfather Henry Summers: one, that his cabinet of curiosities drove him mad; and, two, that he murdered his first wife." Rosemary Summers is an amateur taxidermist and a passionate collector of tattoos. To her, both activities honour the deceased and keep their memory alive. After the death of her beloved grandfather, and while struggling to finish her thesis on gothic Victorian novels, she returns alone to Magpie Hall to claim her inheritance: Grandpa's own taxidermy collection, started more than 100 years ago by their ancestor Henry Summers. As she sorts through Henry's legacy, the ghosts of her family's past begin to make their presence known.

New Zealand is a very different place from six years ago, when this series began. The preoccupations of writers constantly shift from year to year, and in this volume characters face such issues as redundancy, global warming, leaky homes and over-population, but they deal with them in quirky, moving, humorous and shocking ways. This is a surprisingly uplifting collection, where love and the individual spirit reign supreme and where characters can sometimes live happily ever after. Selected by Owen Marshall, these twenty stories introduce exciting new names as well as exhibit the recent work of some of our top writers.Selected by Owen Marshall, these twenty stories introduce exciting new names as well as exhibit the recent work of some of our top writers: Norman Bilbrough, Aaron Blaker, Jennifer Compton, Marie Duncan, Laurence Fearnley, Sue Francis, Charlotte Grimshaw, Gay Johnson, Mike Johnson, Graeme Lay, Frankie McMillan, Kate Mahony, Andre Ngapo, Carl Nixon, Tina Shaw, Elizabeth Smither, Rebecca Styles, Vincent O'Sullivan, Campbell Taylor and Judith White.