Kirsty Gunn Boeken

In this lyrical essay, Gunn explores the ideas of home and belonging - and of her own deep connection to a place where every flower and gatepost seems embroidered with the memory of some story or another.

And how by losing the one most dear you find that in the end only a kind of oblivion can comfort you. Exploring the way memory works, remembering both as a child and as an adult looking back on the child, Rain is an attempt to show the dissolving of the past.

The stories delve into the complex emotions surrounding home, capturing its dual nature as both a sanctuary and a site of departure. Through a diverse array of voices, the narratives skillfully weave themes of nostalgia and loss, inviting readers to reflect on the ties that bind us to our past. Each tale offers a poignant exploration of how memories shape our identities and the bittersweet longing for a sense of belonging.

Presented as a collection of found papers, appendices and notes, The Big Music tells the story of John Sutherland of 'The Grey House', who is dying and creating in the last days of his life a musical composition that will define it.

Infidelities by Kirsty Gunn is a new collection of short stories from the prize-winning author of The Big Music and The Boy and the Sea.

The narrative explores the deep and complex bond between a mother and daughter, intertwined with a web of lifelong secrets. Gunn's lyrical prose enhances the haunting atmosphere, inviting readers to uncover the emotional layers and hidden truths that shape their relationship. This poignant tale delves into themes of memory, identity, and the impact of the past on the present.

Kirsty Gunn’s first novel, Rain, was praised by the New York Times as “exquisitely written . . . every page expresses familiar feelings in ways that are unsentimental and entirely original”; “spellbinding,” raved the Boston Globe. That same resonant magnetism and emotional depth infuse her new novel. Featherstone is the story of the mysterious disappearance from an isolated town in Scotland of a young woman whose absence still reverberates in the lives of everyone whose life she touched. When Sonny Johanssen looks up from his flower bed, he is sure that he has just seen the impossible. And yet he feels her: his niece, Francie, has come home. He’s not the only one who senses her presence. Across town, Ray Weldon, Francie’s long-suffering high school sweetheart, is anxiously scouring their old haunts, convinced that she has finally returned. But has she really come home, or is her presence some kind of resurrection in the minds of those who love her? It soon becomes clear that Featherstone is not a traditional tale of small-town life, but that the enigmatic Francie is a catalyst for a different, deeper story. Her homecoming disturbs the inhabitants of this community, unraveling a sense of security and stability and turning inward people’s hopes and dreams — with dangerous but ultimately regenerative consequences.

From the author of Rain and Featherstone comes a story of a sun-drenched, sea-soaked day which changes a boy's life forever. At the start of a summer's day, Ward is waiting on the beach. His friend, Alex, wants him to come to a party at Alison's where there'll be girls and drinks and the possibilities of fun. But Ward is shy and self conscious and struggling to move from under the weight of his powerful father. He'd rather wait on the beach for the surf to come up. As the the sun moves towards its highest point and the girls' laughter carries along the wind towards Ward, the tide changes and Ward is faced with a dramatic event that will change his life forever. This beautiful and intense coming-of-age story captures perfectly the discomforts and challenges of being fifteen years old with the world stretching out in front of you. Sensual, heady, as though dazed by the heat of her pages, Gunn slowly unfolds a tale of danger and sexuality, of mothers and sons and the fathers who rule them, and of the sea.

a swirling cocktail of obsession and imagination. The moment that Evan Gordonstone - a successful middle-aged financier - meets Caroline Beresford - a glamorous housewife, hostess and landlady - he falls into unrequited love, a story as old as Western literature itself.

Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Gunn is the inaugural title in a new series of short story collections from Landfall Tauraka and Otago University Press, celebrating the art of short fiction in Aotearoa New Zealand.In Pretty Ugly, Kirsty Gunn reminds us that ambiguity and complication are elemental forces in a human life, and grist to the storyteller’s mill. These 13 darkly compelling stories, set in New Zealand and in the UK, are testament to Gunn’s unrivalled ability to look directly into the troubled human heart and draw out what dwells there. The ‘ugly’ of these stories, she writes, is to do with ‘considering how much a person’s life can bear’.Longings, compulsions, jealousies, dreams; ambitions realised, desires denied: Gunn’s steady, clear-eyed gaze unsettles complacencies, reveals duplicities, and gathers us all into the fold. She brings unease and compassion for the human condition in equal measure to the page. Each of these stories is an exquisite, thorn-sharp bouquet.