NEW RELEASES (15.12.23)
A new book is a promise of good times ahead. Click through for your copies:
Compound Press Poetry Calendar 2024 $20
Poets believe in 2024. The text-positive high-manilla Compound Press Poetry Calendar has a poem for each month, and marks Aotearoa poet birthdays, like alternative saints feast days. In the spirit of poetry, it contains virtually no useful information such as public holidays. The poets are: Chris Tse, Renae Williams, Richard von Sturmer, Craig Foltz, David Merritt, Ana Iti, Hera Lindsay Bird, Cadence Chung, Amber Esau, Dominic Hoey, Rebecca Hawkes, and Ya-Wen Ho.
1 2 3 What Will We See? by Sarah Pepperle $30
Count with me! What will we see? Lift the flaps to discover a joyful selection of artworks curated especially for young children in this lively new book. Children will learn to count from 1 to 10 in English, te reo Māori and sign language while looking at delightful works of art. A short read-aloud rhyme accompanies each artwork. The artworks include sculpture, painting, tukutuku, linocuts and woodcuts, tapestry and photography by artists from Aotearoa and abroad. Warm, fun and stylish, this book will delight young minds. Artists include Edith Amituanai, Alice Coats, Ruth Dean, Lonnie Hutchinson, Jack Knight, Gottfried Lindauer, Michael Parekowhai, Juliet Peter, Cyril Power, Philip Trusttum, Ōtautahi Weavers, Robin White and Carolyn Yonge.
See also: A Is for Art.
The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi $40
Anisa Ellahi spends her days writing subtitles for Bollywood films in her London flat, all the while longing to be a translator of 'great works of literature'. Her boyfriend Adam's extraordinary aptitude for languages only makes her feel worse, but when Adam learns to speak Urdu practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret. Adam tells Anisa about the Centre, an elite, invite-only programme that guarantees total fluency in any language in just ten days. Sceptical but intrigued, Anisa enrols. Stripped of her belongings and contact with the outside world, she undergoes the Centre's strange and rigorous processes. But as she enmeshes herself further within the organisation, seduced by all that it's made possible, she soon realises the disturbing, hidden cost of its services.
”I am obsessed with this book and you will be too! A brilliant meditation on language and translation and the most gripping novel I've read in forever. I'm in awe.” —Jennifer Croft
Ayesha Green — Folk Nationalism and Other Stories edited by Ayesha Green and Moya Lawson $30
Working across painting, drawing and sculpture, Ayesha Green (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Kāi Tahu) examines histories of Māori and Pākehā representation. Green’s work focuses on imagery where intercultural relationships intersect, overlap or diverge—from Māori pūrākau, such as the separation of Rangi and Papa, to the signing of the treaties of Waitangi, to Prince William meeting Buzzy Bee. Her exhibition Folk Nationalism traces and contests the ways these images pervade our daily lives and shape our sense of nationhood. Folk Nationalism and other stories is the first publication dedicated to Ayesha Green's practice. It features texts by nine writers who take different routes to and through her work. Through subtle acts of mirroring and repositioning, Green refracts the often-simplified way that images from the history of Aotearoa have been read. Like Green, the writers in Folk Nationalism and other stories demonstrate how numerous, diverse and contradictory meanings converge within these images. With contributions by Francis McWhannell, Elle Loui August, Hanahiva Rose, Madison Kelly, Jess Nicholson, Moewai Marsh, Matariki Williams, Lachlan Taylor and Sarah Hudson.
A History of the Barricade by Eric Hazan $25
In Eric Hazan's native Paris, barricades were instrumental in the revolts of the nineteenth century, helping to shape the political life of a continent. The barricade was always a makeshift construction (the word derives from barrique or barrel), and in working-class districts these ersatz fortifications could spread like wildfire. They doubled as a stage from which insurgents could harangue soldiers and subvert their allegiance. Their symbolic power persisted into May 1968 and, more recently, the Occupy movements.
”I feel like quoting endlessly from this revealing compact book, which, on top of everything else, is beautifully written and no-less beautifully translated. The idea of tracing centuries of tempestuous European history by looking just at one significant engineering object strikes me as brilliant. “ —Vitali Vitaliev
A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare (translated from Albanian by John Hodgson) $40
In June 1934, Joseph Stalin allegedly telephoned the famous novelist and poet Boris Pasternak to discuss the arrest of fellow Soviet poet Osip Mandelstam. In a fascinating combination of dreams and dossier facts, Ismail Kadare reconstructs the three minutes they spoke and the aftershocks of this tense, mysterious moment in modern history. Weaving together the accounts of witnesses, reporters and writers such as Isaiah Berlin and Anna Akhmatova, Kadare tells a gripping story of power and political structures, of the relationship between writers and tyranny. The telling brings to light uncanny parallels with Kadare's experience writing under dictatorship, when he received an unexpected phone call of his own.
The Truth About Max by Alice and Martin Provensen $35
Have you met Max?
Max is a cat who lives on a farm.
Max is always hungry.
Max is very clever.
Max is full of mischief.
But what is the truth about Max?
Read this book and you’ll find out!
Inspired by the Provensens’ real life cat, who lived with them in their home on Maple Hill Farm, this charming picture book offers a window into life on the farm, living in harmony—and good humour!—with animals and nature. It also celebrates the fundamental mystery of the inner life of others. Never before published.
India After Gandhi: A History by Ramachandra Guha $60
An extended new edition of this remarkable work, with new material that explains the major events, policy shifts and controversies of the past decade, placing them in their proper sociological and historical context and setting out the author's justifiable concerns for the decline of democracy in India. Born against a background of privation and civil war, divided along lines of caste, class, language and religion, independent India emerged, somehow, as a united and democratic country. Ramachandra Guha's acclaimed book tells the full story — the pain and the struggle, the humiliations and the glories — of the world's largest and least likely democracy. While India is sometimes the most exasperating country in the world, it is also the most interesting. Ramachandra Guha writes of the myriad protests and conflicts that have peppered the history of free India. Moving between history and biography, the story of modern India is peopled with extraordinary characters. Guha gives fresh insights into the lives and public careers of those long-serving Prime Ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. But the book also writes with feeling and sensitivity about lesser-known (though not necessarily less important) Indians — peasants, tribals, women, workers and musicians. Massively researched and elegantly written.
”Finally, here is a history of democratic India that is every bit as sweeping as the country itself. A magisterial work.” —Financial Times
Warhol After Warhol: Power and money in the Modern Art world by Richard Dorment $40
Late one afternoon in the winter of 2003 art critic Richard Dorment answered a telephone call from a stranger. The caller was Joe Simon, an American film producer and art collector. He was ringing at the suggestion of David Hockney, his neighbour in Malibu. A committee of experts called the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board had declared the two Warhols in his collection to be fake. He wanted to know why and thought Dorment could help. This call would mark the beginning of an extraordinary story that would play out over the next ten years and would involve a cast of characters straight out of fiction. From rock icons and film stars; art dealers and art forgers; to a murdered Russian oligarch and a lawyer for the mob; from courtrooms to auction houses: all took part in a bitter struggle to prove the authenticity of a series of paintings by the most famous American artist of the 20th century. Part detective story, part art history, part memoir, part courtroom drama, Warhol After Warhol is a spellbinding account of the dark connection between money, power and art.
Mexico (‘The Passenger’) $40
Once synonymous with escape and freedom, Mexico is now more frequently described as a place plagued by widespread violence, drug trafficking, endemic corruption, and uncontrolled migration. Under the patina of a tourist paradise — with its beaches, its ancient ruins, its tequila — lies a complex, dynamic country trying to carve out a place for itself in the shadow of its powerful neighbour. The most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world, Mexico is also home to 89 indigenous peoples and languages: one of the many contradictory legacies of the country's colonial past, which still permeates its politics, society, religion, food, and culture. With a fifth of the population identifying as indigenous, the issue of rediscovering and revaluing the country's pre-Columbian roots is at the center of the public debate. The controversial Mayan train project, which would connect Mexico's Caribbean resorts with the South's archaeological sites, crossing (and endangering) communities and forests, is a perfect example of the opposition between the two souls of the country. The attempts to resolve this contradiction, or better still to learn to live with it, will define the Mexico of the future. Only by recognising equal status to ethnic and linguistic minorities will the country be able to reconcile its fractured identity. IN THIS VOLUME: Underground Tenochtitlan by Guadalupe Nettel * Crime and (No) Punishment by Juan Villoro * The Birth of Fridolatry by Valeria Luiselli * plus: the cocaine that washes in from the sea and the pearl of the west, the jungle train and the last stop on the line, femicide and TikTok politics, mole, rice, the Virgin of Guadalupe and more ...
Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto $33
In Hawaii, a cast of women reckon with physical and emotional alienation, and the toll it takes on their psyches. A childhood encounter with a wild pua'a (boar) on the haunted Pali highway portends one woman's increasingly fraught relationship with her body during pregnancy. A woman recalls an uncanny experience, in which Elvis impersonators take centre stage, to an acquaintance who doesn't yet know just how intimately they're connected. An elderly widow begins seeing her deceased lover in the giant corpse flower a mourner has gifted her. Centering native Hawaiian identity, and how it unfolds in the lives, mind and bodies of kanaka women, the stories in Kakimoto's debut collection are speculative and uncanny, exploring themes of queerness, colonisation and desire. Both a fierce love letter to mixed native Hawaiian and Japanese women and a searing dispatch from an occupied territory simmering with tension, Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare takes seriously the superstitions born of the islands.
Slow Drinks: A field guide to foraging and fermenting seasonal sodas, botanical cocktails, homemade wines, and more by Danny Childs $50
Organised by season, Slow Drinks demonstrates how to make drinks that tell a story of botany, history, culture, and terroir, while honoring beverage traditions both old and new. Each season will highlight eight new ingredients with recipes that build on a basics chapter and teach readers how to interchangeably use master recipes to make their own meads, country wines, beers, sodas, tinctures, shrubs, and more. This book is for bartenders, do-it-yourselfers, foodies, homesteaders, homebrewers, food activists, and anyone looking to dive into the world of botanical drink making. Slow Drinks teaches home cooks, industry pros, homebrewers, and foragers how to transform botanical ingredients—whether foraged or purchased from the store—into unique beverages and cocktails.
ZigZag by Julie Paschkis $40
There's nothing ZigZag enjoys more than tasting his words as he uses them, plays with them, and enjoys them, for ZigZag is a lover of words! But one day, excited and energized, he gulps down all his vowels while exploring and enjoying the word "tambourine." Without A, E, I, O, and U, ZigZag's life is turned upside-down: no more lovely tambourines, only tasteless and dull tmbrns; no more tart green apples, only disappointing ppls. Poor ZigZag can't even get any sleep in his comfy, cozy bed, which is now a too short bd. But vowels are all around ZigZag, from his grandmother's satisfied "Aaahs" to his best friend Beanie's amazed "Ooohs." Can you help ZigZag find his vowels again?