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Family history deserves to be read

16/9/2020

2 Comments

 
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The Ninth Candle
by Jenny Harrison
 
‘The Ninth candle is called the helper candle, used to light all the other candles, ‘Anushka whispered, ‘It is the most important candle we have.’ 
     A Jewish woman explaining to Chiune Sugihara the importance of the Festival of Lights of Hanukkah, explaining to a guest not of her faith but a man who saved thousands of Jews and refugees from Hitler’s Polish invasion.  
    ‘The Ninth Candle’ is a true story. It follows one family, that of Peter Baruch, who watched as Hitler’s war machine engulfed their beloved Poland. From believing it would never happen to the ultimate tragedy that it did, this one family’s experiences were mirrored thousands, millions of times over. I have read and researched World War Two, and Poland’s story always tore at my heart. A country between power-houses who tore it to pieces and in doing so, murdered, pillaged, displaced and destroyed family after family.
    The rise of fascism in the world today gives one pause. Books like this need to be read and studied because while we’re busy denying it could ever be so bad, it can be. History has proven it. Unstable leaders with a power complex create chaos and destruction. They make a race or a people the enemy and while we’re pretending genocidal extermination couldn’t happen again, it does.
    For me the stand-out story in ‘The Ninth Candle’ belonged to Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who saved thousands of Polish refugees. 
    Josef stammered. ‘You are rescuing us from certain death. But I don’t understand. This could cost you your life so why are you rescuing Jews in this way?’
Sugihara looked shocked. ‘I’m not rescuing Jews,’ he said. ‘No, no. Not only Jews, Josef. Anyone who needs my help will get it. My dear Josef, don’t you see  It’s not just Jews who matter. It’s everyone. Everyone matters.’
   ‘…on July 9th 1940 Chiune Sugihara took a decision that would change the course of his life and the lives of thousands of others. He opened the door of the Consulate and beckoned the first ten of the long line of refugees to enter the office.’  
    It took courage and integrity. Sugihara had a Gestapo agent in his office yet he never faltered. He was a remarkable man in extraordinary times.
    Jenny’s blurb tells us how each family member acted out of love, Marysia for her son, Josef for his fiancée and Adam for the children under his paediatric care. I would add that Chiune Sugihara did, too.
    Thank you, Jenny, for putting this family’s history into the world. I hope it is read as much as it deserves to be.
Review by TJ Ramsay
Title: The Ninth Candle
Author: Jenny Harrison
Publisher: Lamplighter Press
ISBN: 9798623965950
RRP: $32.50
Available: Amazon, Kindle, author's website (www.jennyharrison-author.com)
2 Comments

Immigration and a return to one’s roots

9/9/2020

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The Telling Time 
by P J McKay

​The Telling Time’s beautiful cover is in sharp contrast to the book’s contents – two grim and troubling stories woven together over time by family ties and family secrets. This is a story of naivety and trickery; trust and abuse; immigration and culture shock. 
    The Telling Time is the story of Gabrijela, a young woman from 1950s Yugoslavia, and her New Zealand-born daughter Luisa as she sets out to visit her mother’s homeland, now Croatia, in 1989.
    Pip McKay’s writing is so vivid that right from page 1 when Gabrijela is describing her detested job, the clinging smell of the sardines wafts off the page and it’s easy to imagine the bleakness of the canning factory and Gabrijela’s determination to get away from it. Little does she imagine that her ‘escape’ won’t simply take her from the family home on Korčula Island a short ferry ride to the ‘mainland’. Instead, in answer to a plea from an immigrant friend of her father’s she is sent to Auckland to work as a housekeeper.
    The descriptions of that Auckland, when women drank Pimms and ginger ale, young people danced to ‘Blue Suede Shoes, and an electric washing machine was a novelty, are well researched and sensitively narrated. They will take readers back to a time when we talked scornfully about Dally plonk but really knew very little about the hard-working group of immigrants who made it. For Gabrijela, homesick and impossibly far from home, a blue aerogramme in the letter box, two weeks old when it arrives, is the highlight of her day. Gradually though she makes friends and improves her English. 
    McKay paints an engaging picture of immigrant life in Auckland, revolving around the Dalmatian community, their social gatherings and family intrigues. Narrated by Gabrijela, this part of the book is often quite amusing, but Gabrijela’s secret, the real reason she left home, lurks brooding in the background: is it something really dark or something that in the light of 2020 New Zealand we would just shrug off? 
    Thirty years after Gabrijela came to New Zealand her daughter decides to take off to explore Europe and in particular to seek out her mother’s family on Korčula. Travelling through Macedonia and into Croatia brings cultural shock to Luisa much as her mother experienced on arriving in Auckland. But for Luisa it’s like travelling back in time to less sophisticated surroundings. Unbeknown to Gabrijela, Luisa hopes to get to the bottom of her mother’s youth – to find out what that unspoken taboo thing is that has always been in the background. 
    Although there are times of immense sadness and brutality in The Telling Time, it also celebrates love and hope; self-discovery, forgiveness and moving forward. McKay’s prose lifts the people off the page so that they become lifelike and the book is a joy to read.
Review by Carolyn McKenzie
Title: The Telling Time 
Author: P J McKay
Publisher: Polako Press
ISBN: 9780473520113
RRP: $34.95
Available: bookshops
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Thoroughly good read

2/9/2020

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For Reasons of Their Own
by Chris Stuart

This book will appeal to readers over the age of eighteen who like a crime novel with an unusual slant. 
    It is well written, easy to read and follow. The descriptions of the Melbourne districts are very good indeed. The characters come to life and you quickly feel that you know and sympathise with the dedicated Detective Inspector Robbie Gray, whose recent internal investigation is tarnished when evidence goes missing, leaving Robbie feeling aggrieved and frustrated.
    Robbie is sent to observe, undercover, at an International Disaster Conference, a role she feels is below her capabilities, but doubt has been cast on her professional judgement.
    However, she is called to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the discovery of a body in a rural swamp, north of Melbourne. Robbie is given a small team that includes Mac, an Aboriginal Police Officer, who has also suffered injustice in a disciplinary matter, which Robbie can empathise with.
    Both Robbie and Mac have an admirable desire to search for the truth in what is, to them, clearly a murder. But when the nationality of the murder victim is revealed the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) take over the case, instructing Robbie and her team to “back off”.  However, Robbie is convinced the ASIO are on the wrong tack and wants to continue her investigation, suspecting corruption and political manipulation.
    Set in Melbourne during a stifling heat wave, drought and raging bush fires, D.I Gray has to convince her superior to allow her team to continue to investigate this murder with no apparent motive and, as Robbie suspects, the ASIO wrongly focusing on the murder as a terrorist orientated incident in order to reshape the Australian security policy.
    Robbie and her team are challenged by heartbreaking humanitarian issues with the eventual outcome making the reader think deeply about the social injustices that are still happening in our world.
    A thoroughly good read, making me want to look forward to another D.I. Robbie Gray story.
Review by Fran Hartley
Title: For Reasons of Their Own 
Author: Chris Stuart
Publisher: Original Sin Press
ISBN: 9780473514921
RRP: $35
Available: bookshops
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Skilled story telling

26/8/2020

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Mellons Bay
by Suzanne Singleton

A good book reveals itself in the first paragraph. Mellons Bay did exactly that. I needed to know more about the people, whose stories it told. New Zealand’s early settlement history came alive for me.
    Knowing it was about people who built a township anyone can visit today made the story all the more interesting. It reminded me that Auckland started as muddy tracks, horse-drawn carts, and simple buildings. It was built on hard work. Author Suzanne Singleton put people on that landscape and drew us into their lives. 
    Those early settlers had no choice but to succeed. There were no government hand-outs if they failed. And going back meant returning to famine and civil war.
    The novel opens with a statement about life being a journey. Mellons Bay is all about journeys on many levels – physical, spiritual, and emotional. 
    The story starts with William Mellon. He is a surveyor for the military in Ireland. He marries Harriet and they sail for New Zealand with their five children. 
    They were author Suzanne Singleton’s great-great-grandparents and I was filled with admiration for them. She tells their story in a compelling, compassionate way, focusing on the main events of their lives and avoiding getting bogged down in detail. We share their heartaches and triumphs.  
    The personalities of both Harriet and William bring this story alive and I found myself absorbed in a topic that is often crushed by a mediocre recital of facts and figures.
The Mellon family’s life was built on journeys, the longest of which was the four-month sea voyage from England. This voyage was full of hope. They left behind poverty and struggle to build a better life in New Zealand. However, who we are comes with us wherever we go. This was true of William and Harriet. William was the solid army surveyor and Harriet was the entertainer with a beautiful voice. William was literate and Harriet illiterate. Two divides they could not cross.
    They settled in Howick. The town that is there today was built by people like them.
While having to recreate the characters from sparse data Suzanne Singleton filled in the gaps using her imagination. This was especially the case for Harriet, of whom there are few records. In filling the gaps with what she imagined happened puts flesh on their bones, adds humanity to the story and separates the story from a mere account of an early settler and his family. They were people of their time shaped by the political and social environment. 
    There is no question life was tough.
    How they make it work is the journey we take under Suzanne Singleton’s skilled story telling makes for a very pleasant journey indeed.
Review by Suraya Dewing
Founder, Stylefit
Title: Mellons Bay
Author: Suzanne Singleton
Publisher: Wily Publications Ltd
ISBN: 978-1-927167-41-0
RRP: $34.95
Available: Paperback. Available in bookshops. Ebook coming
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Strong women in historical fiction

19/8/2020

14 Comments

 
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Shifting Currents 
by Joanna Orwin

The two strong women who are the major protagonists in this novel, as well as the experiences they share, are based (the author explains) on actual early settler figures and events. The setting for the action is mostly northern Kaipara in the 1850s through to the 1880s, though there are also scenes set in Nelson and Auckland.
    The physical difficulties faced by these women – one, Lydia, is a Scot, the other, Eliza,  is from south Yorkshire – are detailed, and the tension that exists between the two provides a theme that runs throughout the book. Lydia has a shameful secret that she fears Eliza either knows or will be able to guess – a secret concerning the paternity of her youngest child, a daughter. Both women are married and have children, and the relationships between the women and their families also play a major part in the story. 
    As their personal histories unfold, the reader is also kept informed of important developments centred on the ever-increasing number of new settlers, and their relations with the local Māori. 
    Carving out clearings from the forests on the banks of the Wairoa River, the newcomers engage in a variety of activities, including tree-felling and milling, gum-digging, growing cash crops and raising dairy and beef cattle, and establishing other commercial enterprises of one sort or another. Naturally, such activities result at times in considerable and permanent environmental degradation. Clearing the forests leads to a great increase in the number and severity of floods, for example, and the use of fire causes the devastation of local wildlife as well as destroying centuries-old stands of kauri trees. Some of these occurrences are described in vivid detail. 
    Although the personalities of the two central women in the story and those of their families, are imagined, it seems that their main movements and life events closely follow those of the historical figures on whom they are based. Lydia develops a personal relationship with the wife of the dominant Māori leader in the area, Te Tirarau; and her daughter, Hannah, finds comfort in the company of the children of Te Tirarau’s people.   Meanwhile Eliza pursues life downriver, becoming an astute commercial operator and rising through the social ranks – the ambition that impels her.
    There are scenes and descriptions in this book that are not only involving but sometimes very moving. One of these is an affecting description of the grounding of the ship that brings Eliza and her family from Nelson to Auckland – a scene that also informs the reader of Eliza’s extraordinary courage and determination. Others revolve around the unforgiving and cruel treatment by Lydia’s (second) husband towards Hannah, her illegitimate daughter. Then there are those that demonstrate the developing sympathy and understanding between Lydia and Eliza.
    This is a book that many will find interesting mainly because of the historical detail; but others will likely become absorbed by the contrasting personalities and fates of Lydia and Eliza. It is also a well-presented book, clean and error-free, and altogether a worthy addition to the ranks of New Zealand historical fiction.
Review by Tony Chapelle
Title: Shifting Currents 
Author: Joanna Orwin
Publisher: Joanna Orwin
ISBN: 9780473519247
RRP: $35
Available: Trade paperback, available at independent bookshops or from Nationwide Books Distributors
14 Comments

Beautifully presented book

12/8/2020

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A Lifetime in Galápagos
by Tui de Roy

Tui de Roy was one year old when she was taken to the Galápagos islands by her parents who were seeking a warm place to live a self-sufficient life. She grew up there, she tamed the herons and finches as playmates, the mangroves were her playgrounds, marine iguanas and blue footed boobies her companions, frigate birds and Galapagos hawks circled above her, and seals and sea lions played on the rocky shores. While other children were exploring cities, she walked across the arid volcanic cones, and marvelled at the giant tortoises she met. 
    When she was eleven she borrowed her father’s camera and began to record her surroundings, and this extraordinary book gives us the record of 50 years of her photos.
The pictures are accompanied by a narrative that explains what is happening in the photos and makes the book far more than just a collection of birds and landscapes. She gives us lessons in ecology and the inter-dependence of species, both on land and under the sea.
    Of particular interest are the photos taken from the same vantage point 50 years apart, showing the changes that have taken place, some as a result of natural processes, but some showing the changes that introduced species have made.
    Tui de Roy seems equally at home in the water as above it, and some of the best photos are taken beneath the surface. Her encounters with whales, her fruitless attempts to capture a booby at the moment of transition from mastery of the air to mastery of the water (1/2000 of a second) which were not fast enough, her patience following an ancient iguana called Abeulo, for days at a time – all show her love for the animals and her mastery of photography. In the case of the iguana, Tui was cut, grazed and battered by the surf and rocks, but for Abeulo it was part of his daily life and had been for decades.  
    This is a beautifully presented book, one I am proud to own and will refer to again and again. I consider it would be a marvellous gift for a lover of nature or photography.
    The only criticism I have is that I would have liked a map included, because each photo mentions the name of the island it is taken on and I had to open a map on my iPad to follow along. I felt it was important to do this as it was the variation between animals and birds on different islands that was a major factor in Charles Darwin arriving at his theory of evolution.
Review by Harold Bernard
Title: A Lifetime in Galápagos
Author: Tui de Roy
Publisher: Bateman Books
ISBN: 9781988538211
RRP: $59.99
Available: bookshops
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A winning formula

5/8/2020

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While the Fantail Lives
by Alan Titchall

This novel is set mainly in 1962, at around the time the world held its breath as the Cuban Missile Crisis played itself out. As the author reminds us, being a country of relative insignificance half a world away from the place where a nuclear war might well have begun didn’t shelter us from fear of the possible consequences – not even in the remote dam-building settlement just north of Taupo where the action takes place. 
    Such towns and settlements have been an important feature of New Zealand’s social and economic history (Otago and West Coast mining communities and railway villages of the nineteenth century, for example, and the forestry and hydro settlements of the twentieth), and it is good to find a novel that describes so well the conditions of life in such places. 
    This particular community is inhabited by a variety of people from around the world – as well as New Zealanders (Māori and Pakeha), the novel features a German and a Russian, Australians, English and South Africans, a Welshman, and a mysterious Harley-riding American. Most of the main protagonists are haunted by incidents and memories of the War, which had concluded only some seventeen years earlier, and which had been one of the principle reasons people found themselves in this hydro town. 
    In fact, several of those protagonists had shared in frightful experiences during that war, unresolved incidents that come to a head in the course of the story. There is a great deal of coincidence involved in these people ending up together in this little community, but the author has us believing that it is not at all impossible that things could have worked out this way. The actual wartime incidents are revealed mainly in the narratives given by the people involved to the narrator of the story – an eleven-year-old boy called Roberto Smith. They are harrowing incidents, and reminders of the inhuman brutality of war.
    There is an element of the other-worldly in the book, centred on the narrator’s attempts to nurse back to health a white fantail he has inadvertently injured (his deep concern at having done so makes for a cracking start to the story). If it dies, he is told, human tragedy might follow. In this regard, a forest-dwelling and possibly malevolent spirit from local Māori lore plays a role in elevating the tension at key times.
    All of this amounts to absorbing, exciting reading; but even more rewarding is the deft way that the author draws his flesh and blood characters. Here are people, male and female, we can all relate to and (even in the least likely case) have real sympathy for. They are opinionated, occasionally funny, and they have their weaknesses; but they are always interesting.
    The narrator being an eleven-year-old, this novel could possibly be characterised as ‘young adult’ – though certain descriptions and themes might be problematic for some. It is certainly a novel that adults would enjoy. Strong, familiar characters, surprising developments as well as vivid descriptions of ordinary life in a 1960s rural community, and action aplenty – it’s a winning formula.
Review by Tony Chapelle
Title: While the Fantail Lives
Author: Alan Titchall
Publisher: Devon Media
ISBN: 9780473517403
RRP: $24.95
Available: bookshops
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Fast-moving easy read

29/7/2020

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The Air that we Breathe 
by Kara Douglas
 
This is a novel, but closely based on historical fact. It was written in response to the author’s own father dying from mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos fibres while working in the asbestos mines in Wittenoon, a town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
    It is told through the eyes of a young Italian man Abele, Maria, and later, their daughter Luciana who along with hundreds of others, were recruited to work in the mine.
    They were promised wages sufficient to set them up for life, had their fares paid to Australia, and provided with a company house in a town built for the mine by the government. They overcame the outback heat, working doubled over in mine shafts one metre high, constantly covered in dust and fibres and built a life for their families. The town grew to 20,000 people, with schools, medical centre and pub.
    What they were not told was that the company knew of the dangers of asbestos, and were deliberately ignoring  the safely regulations and the advice of safety and health inspectors in order to make the most profit possible. 
    The story tells of the experiences of the family while living in Wittenoon and their later life in Perth, culminating in the precedent-setting civil law case, brought by Abele against the owners of the mine.
    Two thousand of the former inhabitants of Wittenoon have died from asbestos disease, making this town one of Australia’s worst environmental sites. It reminded me very much of the Erin Brockovich story. 
    The author’s strategy of telling each chapter in the person of one of the characters makes the book a fast-moving and easy read, a sad tale of deceit and unnecessary  death. 
    It is well worth the price.
 Review by K.H.B
Title: The Air that we Breathe
Author: Kara Douglas
Publisher: Redust Publishing
ISBN: 9780473507756
RRP: $34.95
Available: bookshops
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Memoir is a riveting read

22/7/2020

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Ripiro Beach – A Memoir of Life After Near Death
by Caroline Barron

At some time in our lives we wonder what is our destiny?  Is it ingrained in our DNA or is it nature, nurture or free will?  These are the questions that haunted our author Caroline Barron.
    Caroline has a typical life of a child growing up in New Zealand but on her 20th birthday her life is shattered as her beloved father dies, and she fears for herself, that she too may die at an early age.
    Move forward a few years to a life-threatening haemorrhage following the birth of her second child. But for the skill and fast action of her medical team she survives but is left with so many questions of her own mortality.
Combined with undiagnosed post-partum depression, it leads the author to find solutions for her fears and anger by delving into her whakapapa for answers.
    As in so many families, her extensive research leads her down many branches of her family.
    It was at this stage that I documented her family line to keep track of it and found it absolutely fascinating. It was like a thrilling detective story and I sat for hours reading avidly as the puzzle pieces untangled and fell into place.
    Not only was the author finding her family she was also trying to make sense of her own emotions that were threatening to derail her.
    It is a story of family love, strong friendships, courage and determination and even if the text ends with a wonderful conclusion the reader is left with the feeling the author will continue with her research to tie up loose ends.
    The book has many photographs and the chapters are short enough to encourage the reader to read “just one more chapter” before they turn out the light.
    To quote Dame Fiona Kidman, Ripiro Beach is “a very brave book,” "riveting, at times confronting, moving and passionate.”  I totally concur with that.
Review by Merilyn Mary
Title: Ripiro Beach – A Memoir of Life After Near Death
Author: Caroline Barron
Publisher: Bateman Books
ISBN: 978-1-98-853820-4
RRP: $34.99
Available: bookshops
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For motoring enthusiasts

15/7/2020

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Automania: Iconic New Zealand Collections
by Don Jessen

This book has 320 pages of stunning photos and car descriptions, taken at some of New Zealand’s best private and public automobile collections. 
Instead of just seeking out the public collections Don has enlisted the help of four friends who tracked down the private collections we are privileged to see here, along with a few others that are open to the public. The locations of the private collections are not stated.
    Much credit for making the book the stunning visual feast it is goes to Marilyn Jessen who has taken most of the exquisite photos.
    There are about 24 collections covered here and the variety and scope of these is vast, ranging from American muscle cars, through traditional English saloons and sports cars, to rare military vehicles, and a number of beautiful motorcycles. Each collection has an overview of what cars, or other vehicles, are included, then some are singled out for closer examination, with photos and mechanical details, and the vehicle’s history.
    I was amazed at the number of very rare cars that are listed as New Zealand new vehicles, not specially imported. This really  demonstrates the international motoring diversity that New Zealanders have enjoyed over the years, and I think that our remoteness, and need to keep vehicles on the road, has served to preserve many vehicles that in other places would be scrapped. Almost all of the vehicles have been restored to a very high standard, and this workmanship should also be a matter of pride to all Kiwis.
    Some collections are confined to just one maker, but many are an eclectic mix showing the appreciation of the collector for all types of machinery.
    This is a book not to be read quickly, but to be slowly browsed and each chapter savoured several times.
    The page layout is landscape A4 instead of the more usual portrait mode, and this makes it easier to include bigger photos. The typeface chosen is clear and the whole book is beautifully presented. It would make a wonderful gift, and I can recommend it to all who have an interest in motoring.
Review by Harold Bernard
Title: Automania: Iconic New Zealand Collections
Author: Don Jessen
Publisher: Bateman
ISBN: 978-1-98-853824-2
RRP: $49.99
Available: bookshop
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