The Waters by Carl Nixon. NZ fiction - I think Carl Nixon started his writing career with short stories and the structure of this book is like a series of short stories, but all interlinked and telling the story of a family originating in Christchurch, from each of their different perspectives. There’s an alcoholic, hapless father, and three motherless children who after the death of their mother live blighted lives until they’re taken into foster care. Most of the book is them looking back at their younger selves and finding ways to live with the trauma of how things were - which has made its mark on each of them in their own way. I don’t meant to paint this as overly bleak because it isn’t - you simply get to read about the complex stories that some families have to tell, and the ties that bind them. It’s very atmospheric geographically - his background landscape is instantly recognisable and rings very true. It’s an interesting book. 

The Quiet Hero by Philip Matthews. This is the story of Andrew Bagshaw, who made the trek from Christchurch to Ukraine to work as a volunteer in the war, and lost his life. He comes across as a really interesting bloke - a near genius level geneticist apparently, as well as a pilot and a much loved son and brother, who didn’t follow the linear career route that so many of us go down and carved out his own niche. He was apparently incredibly humble and generous, and reading about the work the volunteers do in Ukraine makes you realise that the ones who go and do that must be very special people indeed. Philip Matthews is a terrific Christchurch based writer and this is done with real insight and compassion. 

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