1
of
1
The Fig Tree
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3100
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
The Fig Tree
$3100
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This book will resonate with readers interested in memoir, history, migration, and cultural identity. Those who appreciate lyrical storytelling that bridges personal and universal themes will find The Fig Tree especially rewarding.
Latest News
A Little Bit Spooky: Board Games for Halloween
Halloween is the perfect excuse for a spooky board game night! From adorable ghost cats...
100 Years of Winnie the Pooh
100 years ago the Hundred Acre Wood and a cast of beloved friends was published...
The Book Briefing - 14/10/2026
It's time for another edition of 'The Book Briefing'! Sacha's back with all the latest...
TV Show Review on: Carrie
Liam's Review Carrie 26’Carrie has been on my radar for a while now, probably my...
The Struggle of Working Somewhere That Sells Beautiful Books
The problem is…I work in the cutest little (I said what I said) bookshop and...
See moreFrom the best-selling author of Cafe Scheherazade comes this tender book of haunting true stories, filled with memorable people. Zable writes about his own and his wife's family in Australia and Europe, about the lives of Jewish and Greek immigrants to Australia, about refugees and wanderers, actors, singers and poets.
The Fig Tree is a tender book of true stories about family, about journeys, about home. Arnold Zable, bestselling author of Cafe Scheherazade, describes remarkable people struggling through tragic times and rejoicing in the unexpectedness of life itself.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
The Fig Tree is a book of true stories with an extraordinary scope. It is about family, about home, about the journeys that reveal to us who we are, and the ways in which contemporary tales reflect ancient myths.
Arnold Zable writes about the rhythms of life on this Greek island, and the villagers who made the long voyage to Australia. He also weaves tales set in Athens, Thessaloniki, Poland and outback Australia and tells of Yiddish actors and writers in search of new audiences in a new land.
At the heart of this book is Zable's understanding of our obligations to the wanderers among us, the dispossessed and the stateless. He makes a gift of their stories in The Fig Tree, celebrating the common threads of humanity that bind us all.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781920885403
Publisher: Text Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 06 September 2004
Country: Australia
Imprint: The Text Publishing Company
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 16.0mm
Width: 128.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 234g
Pages: 240
Collections
About the Author
Authors Bio, not available
Also by Arnold Zable
View all-
Jewels and Ashes
Arnold Zable has articulated, exquisitely, the haunted consciousness of the next generation. An astonishing achievement, this is a lyrical, transcendent, luminous work. Romance and terror, light and shadow, replicas and originals, hover side by side, seeking reconciliation, while within me there is a sense of awe and a silent refrain — I am here, at last I am here; and...Paperback$2800Elsewhere:$3100Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Watermill
Arnold Zable applies his lyrical sensitivity and respect to this collection highlighting human compassion and resilience. Ranging from remote provinces in China and Cambodia to pre- and post-war Yiddish Poland, Kurdish Iraq and Iran, and Indigenous and present-day Melbourne, Arnold Zable's quartet of stories depicts the ebbs and flows of trauma and healing, memory and forgetting, the ancient and the...Paperback$3500Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Violin Lessons
A young boy plays the violin for his mother in Melbourne. Nina Simone sings 'Pirate Jenny' in a bar in Berlin. A fisherman plays a flute on the Mekong. And the strains of Paganini resonate in the forests of eastern Poland. From the cabarets of 1940s Baghdad to the streets of war-torn Saigon and the canals and alleyways of present-day...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Sea of Many Returns
Xanthe is drawn to Ithaca, the birthplace of her father, Manoli, and her maternal grandfather, Mentor. She is translating Mentor's manuscript, his story of leaving Ithaca and his life in Australia—fleeing the Kalgoorlie riots, working in Melbourne coffee houses with his compatriots, studying in the State Library, and learning to dream his way back to Ithaca and back to his...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Glass Horse of Venice
Each morning on her way to school, Claudia passes the glassblower’s workshop and admires the animals in the window, especially the winged horses, prancing, galloping, rearing in battle. One day the glassblower calls Claudia inside and gives her a damaged horse. It is beautiful, but its wings are broken, and Claudia sees only its imperfection. When a terrible storm floods...Hardback$3500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Cafe Scheherazade: Text Classics
A moving tribute to the spirit of survival, Arnold Zable's beloved novel Café Scheherazade is now a Text Classic. 'In Acland Street, St Kilda, there stands a cafe called Scheherazade.' Thus begins Arnold Zable's haunting meditation on displacement, and the way the effects of war linger in the minds of its survivors. In this deeply moving book we meet Avram...Paperback$1799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Fighter
The Fighter tells the story of Henry Nissen, a champion boxer from Amess Street in working-class Carlton who rose through the ranks to battle some of the world's best in the 1970s. Today, Henry works on the Melbourne docks, loading and unloading cargo, taking shifts as they come. His true calling, however, lies on the streets. He frequents police stations...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Scraps of Heaven
Romek and Zofia are trying to rebuild a life together, liberated from the shadow of the concentration camps. Merle Shanahan tiptoes around the volatile moods of her husband Miles. Mr Giancarlo, the aging patriarch, watches over the lives of his enormous family. Mr Sommers sits in silence on his verandah, smoking his pipe and remembering the Great War. Weintraub the...Paperback$2800Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
More from Biography & Memoir
View all-
New ReleaseOne Helluva Ride
"This book is about where I came from, what I fought against, and what I chose formyself. Fame can blur the truth; this is my attempt to bring it back into focus." A legendary actor and Hollywood Icon whose five-decade career spans film, television,and producing, Michael Douglas has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, fiveGolden Globes, a Primetime Emmy,...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseSwan Song
Beautiful. Beloved. Hunted. The extraordinary life and death of Diana, as told by her brother, Charles – available to pre-order now. ‘When asked, ‘What was it like, growing up with Diana?’, my first thought is always, But I don’t know what it was like not to grow up with her…’ In September 1997, Charles Spencer stood in Westminster Abbey before...Hardback$5499Elsewhere:$6500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseFictional Selves
From the beloved actor and star of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Sex and the City comes a candid and deeply personal memoir. In this highly anticipated memoir, the beloved actor and star of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Sex and the City and more shares his utterly original account of his offbeat journey in Hollywood, his battles with fear and...Hardback$4799Elsewhere:$6000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New Release
The Steps
The long-awaited memoir from a true Hollywood icon. We know Sylvester Stallone as one of the most revered actors, writers, and directors of all time, yet his life story is every bit as dramatic, intense, and inspiring as his greatest creations on screen. Bringing together a no-holds-barred account of a fascinating life with messages of hope, positivity, and resilience, in...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseHome Again
Join rock-legend, former Shihad frontman and lead singer of The Adults, Jon Toogood in this unflinching and no-holds-barred memoir Home Again.This is more than a rock story. Toogood looks back on a 37-year career that helped define New Zealand rock music, and the personal cost that came with it. From a music-obsessed childhood in Wellington to the deafening roar of international stages, this...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Dogs, Boys and Other Things I've Cried About
From the social media superstar behind @SimonSits, Isabel Klee--known for her heartwarming tales of dog rescue--comes an utterly winning memoir about a twentysomething woman's search for true love in New York City and the dogs who helped her find it. A Jersey girl by birth, Isabel Klee had always wanted to live in New York City. At age 20, she...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Famesick
Chronicling the tumultuous decade between the premiere of Girls to her 2021 shotgun wedding (minus the baby, because she has no uterus), Lena Dunham takes us through her journey with her trademark mix of humor, unsparing honesty, and keen eye for detail. We peek behind the scenes - of her work, her family, her relationships, and her battle to reclaim her body...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
This Angry Pen of Mine
This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...Hardback$7299Elsewhere:$8999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Signed Copy
Stakes
Read our interview with author Noelle McCarthy! A darkly funny, sparkling follow-up to the author’s bestselling memoir Grand. You have to invite him in. You have to want the vampire’s badness in the house with you. Growing up in Catholic Ireland, Noelle McCarthy is captivated by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The vampire is a risk-free fantasy, a suave alternative to the fraught realities...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Built for This
Raised among strong women, butcher's benches, and hard ideas about what men are meant to be, Brad Poulter grows up knowing he's different long before he has the words for it. But in late '90s small-town New Zealand, 'different' isn't discussed, it's managed. Joining the Royal New Zealand Navy offers escape, certainty, and belonging. The rules are clear, the uniform...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Even the Good Girls Will Cry
Thanks to a thrown beer bottle and a fan letter to a P.O. box, Melissa Auf der Maur's first band scored an opening slot for the Smashing Pumpkins in her bohemian home town, Montreal. Sensing Melissa's talent, Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love. Whisked from her local scene, Melissa joined Hole just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
An Ocean and a Day
An utterly riveting, moving and poignant memoir of grief and loss that will speak to anyone who's ever lost someone they love. An Ocean and a Day is Hannah Richell's personal account of losing her husband, Matt, in a surfing accident on Tamarama beach in 2014. It is the story of the grief journey she travelled over the first two...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
Biography & Memoir lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listBiography & Memoir
Memorable Memoirs of Kiwi Women
Looking for an amazing local memoir of one of the many amazing women here in Aotearoa? Here's a great list, featuring some...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![Lucky You're Tough]()
Lizzy's listBiography & Memoir
Memorable Memoirs of Kiwi Men
Looking for an amazing local memoir of one of the many amazing men here in Aotearoa? Here's a great list, featuring some...View the list
