{"title":"Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle","description":"\u003cp\u003eZarah Butcher-McGunnigle's works offer a compelling blend of \u003cem\u003eArts \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eGeneral Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e, weaving intimate narratives that explore identity, memory, and the nuances of everyday life. Her storytelling captures the emotional complexities of her characters with a distinct voice that is both evocative and thought-provoking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders can expect richly crafted prose that delves into personal histories and cultural reflections, inviting contemplation on how nostalgia shapes our experiences. Whether through autobiographical elements or evocative fiction, Butcher-McGunnigle's books provide a resonant journey into the human condition.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"nostalgia-has-ruined-my-life-by-zarah-butcher-mcgunnigle-9781925818772","title":"Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom the discomfort of my own home I buy dresses, look up recipes, do online surveys.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eNostalgia Has Ruined My Life\u003c\/i\u003e, an unnamed young woman in her late twenties navigates unemployment, boredom, chronic illness, and online dating. Her activities are banal—applying for jobs, looking up horoscopes, managing depression, going on Tinder dates.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"I want to tell someone I love them but there is no one to tell,\" she says. \"Except my sister maybe. I want to pick blackberries on a farm and then die.\" She observes the ambiguities of social interactions, the absurd intimacies of sex, and the indignity of everyday events, with a scepticism about the possibility of genuine emotion, or enlightenment. Like life, things are just unfolding, and sometimes, like life, they don't actually get better.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eZarah Butcher-McGunnigle's novella-in-fragments blends artifice with sincerity, is darkly funny, and alive to the incongruous performance that constitutes getting by.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWritten in a fragmentary form reminiscent of Renata Adler, \u003ci\u003eNostalgia Has Ruined My Life\u003c\/i\u003e, Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle's deadpan fiction debut, documents an unnamed young protagonist's listless existence in an unnamed city. The book's droll dispatches from daily life under late capitalism recall the writing of the author's New Zealand contemporaries Hera Lindsay Bird and Eamonn Marra, but Butcher-McGunnigle's distinctive voice is her own. \u003ci\u003eNostalgia Has Ruined My Life\u003c\/i\u003e is a grimly funny rendering of the absurdity of life in the 2020s—an era in which, with nowhere to turn, the hopeless millennial turns in on herself.'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e- Kelsey Oldham, \u003ci\u003eBooks+Publishing\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eAutobiography of a Marguerite\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Workbook for surviving illness, guide to familial dysfunction and an intersection between fact and fiction...one of the most innovative New Zealand books published in recent years.' - \u003ci\u003eBooknotes\u003c\/i\u003e 'Books of the Year'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'The writing goes to the aching heart of disconnection and of longing for repair...Butcher-McGunnigle has created a crooked beauty out of shards.' - \u003ci\u003etakah magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46713287540972,"sku":"9781925818772","price":29.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/18513053482873.jpg?v=1754321723"},{"product_id":"autobiography-of-a-marguerite-by-zarah-butcher-mcgunnigle-9781923106611","title":"Autobiography of a Marguerite","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe are made up of stories, but which ones belong to us? What are the boundaries between our bodies and the outside world? \u003cem\u003eAutobiography of a Marguerite\u003c\/em\u003e is a profound, book-length poetic work about chronic illness, family dysfunction, and identity, and how they can shape one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe narrator struggles with the effects of her autoimmune illness, and struggles to separate herself from her troubled mother. A doctor tells the narrator that there is 'no cause and no cure' to her ailment, but the book attempts to explore how familial environments might contribute to the development of ill health.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eButcher-McGunnigle's experimentation with form—overlapping voices, footnotes, fragments, found text and photographs—illustrate the struggle for autonomy and a sense of self, the repressed grief of chronic illness and its disruptive effect on the sufferer's sense of time's passage. The poems make visible the often-hidden experience of disability, and the reader becomes both a witness and an actor, piecing together a narrative that challenges what an autobiography can be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'One of the most innovative New Zealand books published in recent years.' — Siobhan Harvey, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBooknotes\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e'Books of the Year 2014'\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Astonishing...This poetry is unlike anything I have seen.' — Paula Green\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'A grand achievement. The writing goes to the aching heart of disconnection and of longing for repair...Butcher-McGunnigle has created a crooked beauty out of shards.' — Sue Wootton, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eTakahe\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47485918314732,"sku":"9781923106611","price":32.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/f9d38e5d0fb82e87606d6f73c8a7d88a.jpg?v=1775791337"},{"product_id":"leaves-fall-off-to-create-drama-by-zarah-butcher-mcgunnigle-9781923106604","title":"Leaves Fall Off to Create Drama","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat are the appropriate emotions. Even with a map, it was difficult to determine. An ache which means let go. If she didn't have the thought, she wouldn't have the feeling.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eZarah Butcher-McGunnigle's \u003ci\u003eLeaves Fall Off to Create Drama\u003c\/i\u003e is a collection of prose poems that invites the reader to consider the relationships between internalised beliefs and the development of illness, drawing on psychology texts and the language of self-help, and the exploration of character traits and dramatic tropes. \u003ci\u003eWheels fall off to create drama.\u003c\/i\u003e Through shifting frames of reference, wordplay, aphorism, and inversions, the poems reform, unfold and rebound to create a collage of melancholy and comic transformations. \u003ci\u003eOne thing leads to a mother.\u003c\/i\u003e Butcher-McGunnigle's poems explore the relationship between unexamined subconscious thinking and physical and mental health, resisting singular, fixed meanings and inviting the reader to reflect on their own experiences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eNostalgia Has Ruined My Life\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Full of moments that, to me, are perfect...consummately whole, exactly right, every element in glowering harmony, as densely fixed as a neutron star.' Ursula Robinson-Shaw, \u003ci\u003eSydney Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47486434509036,"sku":"9781923106604","price":29.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/e70835016df259f110ffc52be30fd100.jpg?v=1775779494"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/zarah-butcher-mcgunnigle.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}