New Zealand Listener

New Zealand Listener is the country’s most respected general interest magazine, bringing you a wide variety of news, stories, columns, reviews, plus TV listings, every week.

LISTENER

17 days in the dark • While SIVA KUMAR waited for his aggressive blood cancer to be diagnosed, he felt abandoned by the health system.

Advocate for human rights

10Quick Questions

“Quote Marks”

Bright Lines Creative words competition

Checkout, the competition • National’s plan to interfere in the business of supermarkets reflects its desperation, but may still come at a bargain price for the duopoly.

Drowning by numbers

Back on the train gang

Core principles

Anatomy check

Moving on, again

A leg up the ladder • Helping the kids into houses may seem to well-off Boomers the right thing to do. But critics warn a massive wealth transfer is locking others out and entrenching inequality.

BIGGER MORTGAGES • First-home buyers are signing up to more bank debt: is the Bank of Mum and Dad drying up?

REST HOME TRAP

It takes two • Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick’s co-leadership had a troubled start, but six weeks from the election, the Greens are our third most popular party. Can their consensus-style politics take on ‘the empire’?

The outsider’s outsider • Jon Ronson has spent more than three decades documenting freaks and their dark worlds. In his latest book and an upcoming Auckland show, he examines a troubling new phenomenon for our era.

Starving for attention • In her new book, CATHERINE CHIDGEY turns her focus to the scrutiny of women’s bodies. Here is an exclusive excerpt.

Double helix • Station Eleven author’s latest skilfully entwines elements of science fiction and traditional novels.

Poetry

Down but not out • Award-winning writer turns to what she knows in a devastating novel partly based on her own experiences.

Short cuts

Kitchen confidential • The hidden lives of everyday objects lead us well beyond the comfort zone in this part-memoir, part-fiction outlier.

Countdown to a burial • The famous eruption almost takes a back seat as those living in Tarawera’s shadow are brought to life.

Diaspora dreams

Out of place • Yellowface author’s sidestep into autofiction fails to capture the magic of previous novels.

Yesterday once more • Complex debut novel draws connections between 19th-century colonial violence and the Taranaki of today.

BESTSELLERS

When we were young • After conquering the festival circuit, Paloma Schneideman’s coming-of-age story Big Girls Don’t Cry gets a hometown welcome.

Blown away • A rare solo exhibition by Cornelia Parker is set to wow Wellington.

Good boys • A man and his dog are not soon parted in NZ-shot movie.

One for the book

Heartbreak hotelier • Three’s a charm on superb companion piece to Sea Change and Morning Phase.

Golden touch • Mackenzie Crook’s new comedy has a bit of that old black magic.

TV Picks of the week

TV Films • The big movies on TV this week

Same old story • Baroque specialists perform operas linked by a 16th-century epic poem.

A cool head • Could a cooling cap help to minimise brain damage after a stroke until blood flow can be restored? A NZ trial aims to find out.

Health briefs

Sister act • Delicious, adaptable recipes from siblings Margo Flanagan and Rosa Power.

Robertson’s resilience • Devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle, Brookfields is flourishing again.

Us & them • Social identity can be a source of pride, but what happens when we decide people aren’t part of our group?

From time to time •...