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The 2011 Award

 

 

King

Magpie Hall

by Rachael King

 

 

Nominated by:

  • Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand

 

Publisher of Nominated Edition:

Vintage RHNZ

 

the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors
ABOUT THE BOOK

 "There were two rumours surrounding my great-great-grandfather Henry Summers: one, that his cabinet of curiosities drove him mad; and, two, that he murdered his first wife."

Rosemary Summers is an amateur taxidermist and a passionate collector of tattoos. To her, both activities honour the deceased and keep their memory alive. After the death of her beloved grandfather, and while struggling to finish her thesis on gothic Victorian novels, she returns alone to Magpie Hall to claim her inheritance: Grandpa's own taxidermy collection, started more than 100 years ago by their ancestor Henry Summers. As she sorts through Henry's legacy, the ghosts of her family's past begin to make their presence known.


 

(From Publisher)


 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachael King has worked in various media, including Rip it Up, Staple, Pavement and 95bFM, and as a researcher for television. She played bass guitar in several Flying Nun bands until the mid-90s. In 2008 she was the Ursula Bethell writer-in-residence at Canterbury University. This is her second novel; her first, THE SOUND OF BUTTERFLIES, was a bestseller and in 2007 won the Montana NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction.

LIBRARIANS' COMMENTS

An interesting take on the gothic novel, using the framework of the Victorian novel in a new and fresh way.

 

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