This isn't strictly autobiography nor is it entirely fiction, but, through a story of a life, it shows that books have a certain function and this is the way they have functioned in this life: as something mysterious, consolatory, instructive, enlightening and amusing.

The life in itself - of the growth of a young girl into womanhood - is at once interesting, moving and worth reading in its own right, but the succession of books read at each stage offer a linking motif. In Fiona's accessible, beautiful style, the work unfolds; it is thoughtful and thought-provoking, touching and intriguing - a work for every lover of books.

Book Book 'a little one-of-its-kind masterpiece' - Iain Sharp, Sunday Star Times

"a lovely book, literary and bookish yet totally accessible. " Margie Thomson.

"this is a timely book, tapping into our deepening national awareness of history and identity in which literature plays a huge part." Molly Anderson.

"Book Book is a delightful reaffirmation for bibliophiles for whom books!and reading are a central part of their being and identity." Philippa Barrett, Bookshelf.

Accolades

Shortlisted for Nielsen BookData New Zealand Booksellers' Choice Award 2005.
Shortlisted for Montana New Zealand Book Awards: Fiction Category 2005.

Author Biography

Born in Oamaru and educated at Otago and Toronto, Fiona Farrell has been writing since the 1980s. To date she has published two books of poetry, two collections of short stories and three novels. Her novel The Skinny Louie Book won the New Zealand Book Award for Fiction in 1992, and she has won many other awards, including the Bruce Mason Award for Playwrights and the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship in Menton.