Darkly brilliant

Award-winning NZ author Carl Shuker has released his second novel to immediate acclaim. Set in NZ, The Lazy Boys is a harrowing account of a group of friends spiralling out of control during their first year at university. Shuker’s US publisher Shoemaker & Hoard describes the book as “a punch in the stomach, a sustained cry; as harsh as Less Than Zero, as brutal as A Clockwork Orange.” Shuker discusses his novel’s difficult gestation in NZ’s Herald on Sunday: “I wrote this book during a very dark time in my life, and when it was finished, I was a very dark person … The novel had been such a trauma to finish that when I did so, I still remember counting the hours of peace.” A graduate of Bill Manhire’s creative writing course at Victoria University, Shuker won NZ’s 2006 Glen Schaeffer Prize in Modern Letters for his debut novel, The Method Actors.


Tags: Carl Shuker  Shoemaker & Hoard  

Pirate Comedy Deserves Another Season

Pirate Comedy Deserves Another Season

Cancelled after two season, Taika Waititi’s “silly comedy” Our Flag Means Death “deserves one more voyage”, according to Radio Times critic George White. “ was meant to be sacred…