Emma Neale

Moving, insightful, lyrical, and at times very funny, this novel is a supple, disarmingly frank exploration of parenthood. Liam and Iris have one son—Billy, a bright toddler puddling about like a penguin, leaving surrealist art installations all over the house—a tiny cow in a teapot in a hat on the doorstep, of course! A stuffed crocodile in a silk camisole...

Fibs, porkies, little white lies, absolute whoppers and criminal evasions: the ways we can deceive each other are legion. Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit, the new collection by Ōtepoti poet and writer Emma Neale, is fascinated by our doubleness. Prompted by the rich implications in a line from Joseph Brodsky—'The real history of consciousness starts with one's first lie'—it combines a...

Nate, a grieving widower, is determined to honour his late wife and find a way to have the child they were desperate to raise together. After various attempts to identify a suitable surrogate come to nothing, Nate is compelled to try something radical.He travels to London to take part in a groundbreaking medical trial. As things progress, he becomes caught...