Owen Marshall Selected Stories

A generous selection from New Zealand's foremost writer of short stories. Peter Simpson in reviewing Owen Marshall's stories in the New Zealand Listener wrote: 'Marshall is held in uncommon affection by New Zealand readers - generally we admire and respect rather than love our writers.' This love is perhaps evoked not just by the superb quality of Marshall's writing but because his stories so precisely capture his fellow New Zealanders and their country. From the provinces to the cities, the remote landscapes to journeying overseas, Marshall's stories show a deep understanding of who and where we are. Sometimes he skewers the locals with sharp and sly comedy, in other stories there's an elegiac sadness or a grim reality, but always an insightful exploration of human emotions. From the substantial body of work created over the last thirty years, critic, writer and academic Vincent O'Sullivan has selected sixty stories that give a wide representation of Marshall's range. He once wrote that short stories should aspire to a combination of 'intransigence and poetry', both of which are evident in this fine selection. 'Marshall is a writer who speaks with equal intensity to the unbearable loveliness and malevolence of life.' - Carolyn Bliss, World Literature Today

Chosen by the author from his thirteen previous collections, this latest selection of stories includes 'Coming Home in the Dark', the inspiration for a new feature film. Owen Marshall is regarded as one of our finest living writers. His stories capture the imagination and refuse to let go. From dark to funny, acerbic to warm, they probe our national psyche with clear-eyed insight. This selection from a long career ranges across New Zealand and ventures overseas; the pieces explore both cruelty and love; they look back to childhood and also capture the world we live in today. Full of unexpected turns, lyrical writing, wry observations and intriguing plots, this sampling offers a provocative take on New Zealand. `I very much envy his ability to lay things down in such a way that each one has its natural weight and place, without any straining and heaving.' - Maurice Gee, Sport 'Owen Marshall has established himself as one of the masters of the short story' - Livres Hebdo, Paris

A generous selection from New Zealand's foremost writer of short stories. Peter Simpson in reviewing Owen Marshall's stories in the New Zealand Listener wrote: 'Marshall is held in uncommon affection by New Zealand readers - generally we admire and respect rather than love our writers.' This love is perhaps evoked not just by the superb quality of Marshall's writing but because his stories so precisely capture his fellow New Zealanders and their country. From the provinces to the cities, the remote landscapes to journeying overseas, Marshall's stories show a deep understanding of who and where we are. Sometimes he skewers the locals with sharp and sly comedy, in other stories there's an elegiac sadness or a grim reality, but always an insightful exploration of human emotions. From the substantial body of work created over the last thirty years, critic, writer and academic Vincent O'Sullivan has selected sixty stories that give a wide representation of Marshall's range. He once wrote that short stories should aspire to a combination of 'intransigence and poetry', both of which are evident in this fine selection. 'Marshall is a writer who speaks with equal intensity to the unbearable loveliness and malevolence of life.' - Carolyn Bliss, World Literature Today

A new and generous selection from New Zealand's foremost writer of short stories.

A collection of 24 short stories by one of New Zealand's top living writers of short stories. Funny, affectionate, astute and touching, they explore the worlds of small-town communities, their loves and losses, and their dreams. Owen Marshall possesses a matchless ability to move easily from sharp comedy to elegiac sadness, from the delightfully accurate pricking of pretensions to the moving examination of the deepest human emotions and frailties. Marshall is never content to mine old ground. His familiar small-town and rural landscapes have their place in WHEN GRAVITY SNAPS but so, too, do smart urban parties, the pettiness of school and university hierarchies, the perspectives of elderly men and women with long, rich lives behind them, the search for human connection and warmth in an often capricious world. Funny, moving, challenging and memorable, this new collection of beautifully calibrated stories will be welcomed by Marshall fans, and new readers, everywhere.

This entertaining and insightful novel both skewers and celebrates small-town New Zealand. Pat `Pearly' Gates has achieved a lot in his life and evinces considerable satisfaction in his achievements. He has a reputation as a former Otago rugby player and believes he would have been an All Black but for sporting injuries. He runs a successful real-estate agency in a provincial South Island town, of which he is the second-term mayor. Popular, happily married, well established, he cuts an impressive figure, especially in his own eyes. But will his pride and complacency come before a fall?