This distinguished New Zealand novelist frequently draws upon his rural childhood, a background that profoundly shapes his fiction. His narratives consistently revisit familiar settings, often under different names, highlighting the enduring influence of small-town life. Even in his more recent works, set against the backdrop of major cities, it is the intimate details of specific neighborhoods that truly command the reader's attention.
Was poet Rex Petley a murderer? And why, forty years later, does he drown out on the gulf? His friend Jack Skeat is drawn to examine the landscapes of their childhood, going west from Wellington to Auckland, as he attempts to unravel the mystery of Petley's life.
Alice Ferry is a retired Wellington scientist, a mycologist (fungi is her thing). One day a young man knocks on her door. Adrian is a great-nephew she never knew she had, the grandson of her brother Gordon. As her story unfolds we learn of her childhood with Gordon in West Auckland and of the divergent paths their lives have taken. While Alice has gone on to have a successful career, Gordon has mentally deteriorated to the point where he is a silent derelict living on the streets of Wellington. Adrian wants to meet him. But Alice resists. As Adrian persists, Alice becomes more and more edgy. What is she hiding from her nephew? How has Gordon ended up in this state? And what does Alice have to do with it? Blindsight shows Gee the master playing with characters and complex story structures with immense skill.
A collection of stories exploring moments in the lives of ordinary people, including "The widow," "Schooldays," "Eleventh Holiday," and "Buried Treasure, Old Bones"
Josef Mandl, retired from business, takes a sharp-eyed look at his past. As a young man in the communist underground in Vienna he fought street battles against the Nazis. Safe from persecution in New Zealand, however, he is classed as enemy alien and locked up onSomes Island in Wellington Harbour. At war's end, an Austrian Jew in a 1940s antipodean and colonial society, Mandl exists in harmony and in conflict with refugees and New Zealanders alike. His story mirrors the alien experience everywhere. In precise, elegant prose Maurice Gee looks at themes of loss and dispossession, of family, friendship and love, investing the familiar with touching significance. Live Bodies is, quite simply, an exquisite piece of writing by one of New Zealand's finest novelists.
The novel features George Plumb, a complex clergyman whose dual nature makes him both admirable and repulsive. As he navigates his intense spiritual convictions, the story explores the personal sacrifices he makes in the name of his conscience, often at the expense of his loved ones. This character-driven narrative delves into themes of morality, self-absorption, and the impact of one's beliefs on relationships, solidifying its place as a significant work in New Zealand literature.