Following a disastrous family holiday, Libby and Curtis make a promise: If they ever visit the West Coast of the South Island again, it will be to stay at the majestic Grand Glacier Hotel. Twenty years later, Libby is recovering from cancer and the couple finally return to the resort. Except the glacier has retreated, nothing goes to plan, and after a storm separates her from Curtis, Libby finds herself alone in the isolated hotel. Disappointed, she tentatively begins to explore her surroundings. Could the inaccessible hotel and its curious collection of staff and guests hold the key to Libby reconnecting with the person she once was? At the Grand Glacier Hotel is award-winning novelist Laurence Fearnley's third novel responding to the five senses. Drawing on a varied soundscape, this tangible, moving portrait of physical and emotional recovery offers a way forward, one hopeful step at a time. Praise for the author's other books: 'I am such a fan of Laurence's...

In this story of male friendship, Fearnley reproduces the cadences and rhythms of rural life and offers insight into a provincial male world seldom explored in recent New Zealand fiction. Best friends Warwick and Dean live in rural Southland. Dean, a farmer, is single and lonely - if only he'd admit it to himself. Warwick is caught between his love for a place and his love for Sabine and Ecki, his estranged wife and child now living in Germany. Dean observes Warwick's struggle but has problems of his own: a domineering father he neither loves nor respects, and on-going feelings of guilt and grief for his brother. Suddenly, Sabine and Ecki return to New Zealand, bringing the past with them to threaten the fragile worlds Warwick and Dean have created for themselves.

On board an aircraft as it makes its way slowly from the Antarctic to New Zealand, three people sit quietly, reflecting on their past summer on the ice. Sally, a composer, has been searching for inspiration. She wasn't prepared for the silence of Antarctica. William, a bird scientist, has been visiting since the 1960s. Estranged from his family, he has just completed his last summer on the ice. Marilyn, a young communications operator, has spent three months at Scott Base feeling isolated and lonely. She has had an affair with a young field-training instructor and now dreads the future. Contrasting the beauty and vastness of the Antarctic with the banality and discomfort of life on ice, Laurence Fearnley's new novel focuses on themes of love and memory to capture the stories of three people stuggling to understand their journey.

I wonder why Edwin's mother left him — why his mother left and mine stayed? I mean, which is the more damaging — the mother who tells you she loves you and leaves, or the mother who calls you stupid and stays? This beautifully written novel by Laurence Fearnley is about finding love in the most unlikely of places. Set in the southern South Island, it describes the unusual bond formed between sixty-two-year-old photographer Edwin and twenty-two-year-old Matilda, as their relationship grows in ways neither could possibly have predicted. I liked the look of concentration on his face when we made love. His hands moved gently over my body; it was as if he was turning the pages of some fragile book - the type of book that has tissue pages, like an old-fashioned Bible. He reminded me, too, of a child learning to read. I pictured his fingertips tracing the words on the page, his lips mouthing the sounds, so intense was his focus. 'Edwin,' I teased, 'am I a good...

Funny and moving, this novel subverts notions of 'man vs. wild' while showcasing female experience through encounters with family, friends and the natural world. Loretta is a school librarian, who embarks on compiling The Dangerous Book for Menopausal Women while waiting to collect her son from after-school activities. Chance is a teenager, who discovers an unusual creative outlet to offset the strain of her controlling mother. Riva is the founder of a wetlands sanctuary, who is seeking a way to fulfil her promise to her dying sister to do something 'absolutely spectacular'. Within a clearing in the woods by a lake stands a den, a secret sanctuary and eventual meeting place for all three women . . .

One of the reasons she was attracted to etchings was the deep, rich, black of the oily ink. A good layer of black ink was fathomless, like the sky or the sea at night. It was black as the unconscious mind, full of life but beyond reach. Quinn is a successful artist creating new works for an upcoming exhibition. She lives on the coast with Marcus, a vet who left his wife for her and lost contact with his young daughter Audrey as a result. Entering their lives is Callum, a deep-sea diver with a love of the ocean. As the countdown to Quinn's exhibition progresses, each must face challenges and make choices that will test their loyalties and have far-reaching consequences for their future. A brilliant new novel from award-winning author Laurence Fearnley, Reach�is about risk-taking and the ways in which creativity, struggle and danger empower individuals and enrich life. Also available as an eBook

A compelling and poignant search for identity through perfume. Granny Seren told me I had a natural talent for perfume making, and I believed her because she seemed to know what she was talking about and she never lied. It was Seren who introduced me to the idea of a signature scent. As a university lecturer, Si�n didn't need a signature scent to know who she was. But, prompted by her job loss following restructuring of the humanities - and the effect this has on her identity - she begins to construct a perfume of herself. Note by perfume note, referencing scent memories and recent events, she rebuilds herself, Scented.

A heart-warming new novel by the author of Edwin and Matilda, runner-up for the Montana Award in 2008. Life is tough for 40-year-old solo mother Maggie, a home help caregiver. �Her three children are all giving her a hard time, especially Bevan, who's in trouble with the police. �But when she's assigned a musician in a wheelchair to care for, something new enters her life. Maggie's a singer, Tim a fine guitarist.� They'll make music together, but tragedy is just around the corner.� Then it's Mother's Day, and Maggie and her family gather . . . This touching new novel from Laurence Fearnley contains many gems of warmth, affection, love and hope. It confirms her position as one of New Zealand's finest writers. 'It is Fearnley's prose that woos you, precise in its observations and judicious in its use of dialogue. �It's the kind of writing you don't really notice, which makes it rare, and such a pleasure.' Margot White, Next

It was more beautiful than anything I had ever seen and I didn't have the words to describe it.� It felt it though.� I let out an incredible whoop of joy and skipped into the air, laughing and laughing; there was so much joy inside me.� For the first time in all my memory, I could not contain myself. As a boy in the early 1940s, young Boden Black finds his life changed for ever the day his neighbour Dudley drives him over the hills into the vast snow-covered plains of the Mackenzie country.� Unexpectedly his world opens up and he discovers a love of landscape and a fascination with words that will guide him throughout his life, as he forges a career as a butcher and poet, spends a joyous summer building a hut on the slopes of Mount Cook and climbs to the summit in the company of Sir Edmund Hillary. A moving exploration of onw man's journey and the events which shape him, The Hut Builder is also an evocative celebration of the mountain world and the wonder of life....