Product details
- ISBN 9780349020914
- Weight: 206g
- Dimensions: 126 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 22 Jan 2026
- Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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'Janet Frame was a unique and troubled soul whose luminous words are the more precious' HILARY MANTEL
'Her dark, eloquent song captured my heart' JANE CAMPION
'All my preoccupations as a writer - my notions of home, beauty, madness of sorts and longing - come from her' MEG MASON
There is nothing in the world the matter with me, except that I have been bathed in a trough and dipped under a waterfall and the pine-needles picked from my scars. . .
This is the story of the Withers family: Francie, soon to leave school to start work at the woollen mills; Toby, whose days are marred by the velvet cloak of epilepsy; Chicks, the baby of the family; and Daphne, whose rich poetic way of seeing the world leads to a heartbreaking life in institutions.
A dazzling, fierce cry of darkness and joy, Janet Frame's debut novel is a poetic masterpiece and a timeless classic of New Zealand literature.
INTRODUCED BY MARGARET DRABBLE
'The first great New Zealand novel and a modernist masterpiece . . . the book's immense power to unnerve, astonish and impress endures' Guardian
Janet Frame (1924-2004) is New Zealand's most famous writer. She was a novelist, poet, essayist and short-story writer. She sought the support and company of fellow writers and set out single-mindedly and courageously to achieve her goal of being a writer. She wrote her first novel, Owls Do Cry while staying with her mentor Frank Sargeson, and then left New Zealand, not to return for seven years.
Her autobiography inspired Jane Campion's acclaimed film, An Angel at My Table. She was an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Literature and won the Commonwealth Literature Prize. In 1983 she was awarded the CBE.
