Renée

This is the astonishing memoir of a young woman called only "Renee," whose descent into schizophrenia began at the age of five. Written with a diamond-sharp precision that lends it an eerie power, it tells the story of Renee's long sojourn in what she calls "The Land of Enlightenment" or "The Country of Tibet" and of her gradual and painstaking return to "wonderful reality." Renee moves in and out of hospitals, sometimes able to eat only tea and spinach, or apples and spinach, because "'The System forbade anything else." She regresses to a state resembling infancy, and she experiences intense despair, although she always describes her experiences with a pitiless and remarkable calm, as though she has observed herself from a great distance. And all the while she is sustained by the attention and understanding of her analyst, Marguerite Sechehaye, who has contributed an illuminating Afterword to her story. This harrowing and unforgettable work is a classic in the literature of mental illness. With a foreword by Frank Conroy.

The True Story of "Renee"

Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl

Rose Anthony is recovering from a serious illness, smarting from a fight with her lover, and waiting for the results of an art contest that she entered when an unlikely person arrives at her door in this compelling mystery from a leading New Zealand writer. A baby has been abandoned on her doorstep with an accompanying note that reads "For Rose Anthony." The secret life of her late mother is revealed to Rose in this tightly plotted, entertaining read.

The Skeleton Woman

Two One-woman Plays and Setting the Table : a Play in Four Scences

Secrets

"Sure thirty years is a long time. Sure the case was closed. Well, never really a case as such. Fifteen-year-old brown girl tops herself, who cares? Turn the page. That bloody notebook, thought Club. God knows what was in it. Who knew that little bitch could even write? Ruby Palmer has been dealt a rough hand. She was left in a kete at the back door of the Porohiwi Home for Children when she was a baby, and then at seven she discovered that Betty - who stopped the bad stuff happening to Ruby at the Home - had drowned. Now in her thirties, Ruby needs to find out what really happened to her and Betty at the Home - and her only lead is a notebook that uses the symbols in playing cards to tell a story she doesn't fully understand. But her investigations set off a chain reaction: a man in a balaclava attacks her and there are break-ins at her apartment and the local theatre where she's acting in 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. As Ruby goes deeper into the mystery at the heart of the Home, she starts to find answers to questions she hadn't dared ask"--Back cover

The Wild Card

Do we ever really know or understand the motives of the ones we love? When Vivvie Caird is faced by the sight of her beautiful, strong-willed mother lying limp and speechless in a hospital bed, she feels empowered to begin unlocking the mystery that is her father's legacy. Vivvie's na ve undertaking soon finds a parallel in her mother's own account of what happened when her husband left home one day, never to return. A family, and a court must confront a devastating event that occurred in the midst of the hard times of last century. This fast-paced, page-turning novel takes the reader into an absorbing and moving world of shadowy relationships and intrigue.

Kissing Shadows

Albert Wendt

Paula Morris

Tina Makereti

Patricia Grace

Alice Tawhai

Briar Grace-Smith

Helen Waaka

Terence Rissetto

Mark Sweet

Piripi Evans

K-T Harrison

Toni Pivac

Ann French

Anya Ngawhare

Eru Hart

Jacqui McRae

James George

This collection brings together twenty short stories from eighteen of New Zealand’s accomplished writers. They explore the dark and dangerous milieu of our comfortable existence. There is humour, tenderness, surprise, anger, sorrow and abject desperation in these stories from the four winds.

Nga Hau e Wha

Stories on the Four Winds

Renée

About

Books

Join the club