This collection brings together Marshall’s most powerful poetry from his previous three collections with many more recent works. They are complemented by photographs taken by his friend and fellow Mainlander Grahame Sydney.

‘They are an exquisite marriage of musicality, observation, elegance and economy. Certain words stand out in his lines like the glint of light on wet ground.’ — Paula Green, New Zealand Herald

Brilliantly tracing the progress of unexpected love and the perils of relationships, this gripping novel is a tour de force.

Temporarily in Auckland while her husband is undergoing treatment, Sarah enjoys a walk in the coolness of the Symonds Street Cemetery. As she pauses at the grave of Emily Keeling, murdered in 1886 by a rejected suitor, a stranger named Hartley strikes up a conversation. Before long he arranges to meet Sarah for coffee.

So their friendship begins and soon blossoms into an affair, rich in mutual understanding and sexual excitement. But love may become obsession, which brings with it disquieting demands, even menace.

‘When love is not madness, it is not love.’

Shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2017

‘The deft hand of one of New Zealand’s finest writers is everywhere in this deceptively simply told story of one woman’s transgression and one man’s unravelling. As the novel moves towards its climax the question is not if or when it will all end, but how.’ — Helen Speirs, Otago Daily Times

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

OWEN MARSHALL, novelist, short-story writer, poet and anthologist, has published over thirty books. Awards include the Deutz Medal for Fiction, the New Zealand Literary Fund Scholarship in Letters, fellowships at Otago and Canterbury universities and the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship in France. He is an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature and a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, and he has received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Canterbury. See more at www.owenmarshall.net.nz.

THE BEGINNING

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