Living In The Maniototo

All I had experienced, all the stories I had read or dreamed came to me the moment I, a stranger, turned the key in the lock of the unknown house.'

In a sweltering basement in downtown Baltimore, Mavis Halleton, writer, ventriloquist and gossip, is struggling to write her novel when an unexpected invitation arrives. The Garretts, a couple Mavis has never heard of but who admire her work, are to spend time in Italy, and offer the use of their airy home in the Berkeley hills.

During her stay, an earthquake hits northern Italy, and Mavis, to her surprise, inherits the house. But, surrounded by museum replicas and tasteful imitations, she finds reality itself is on shaky ground.

In this highly inventive novel, reality, fiction and dreams are woven together as Janet Frame playfully explores the process of writing fiction.

“'Quirky, rich, eccentric' Margaret Atwood'Probably as near a masterpiece as we are likely to see this year . . . it is a novel full of riches' - Martyn Goff, Daily Telegraph'Puts everything else that has come my way this year in the shade' - Guardian'The most original and resourceful novel I have read for a long time' - New Statesman 'Frame's novel is remarkable - full of word plays, cameo portraits and deliberate mystery' - Publishers Weekly”

Quirky, rich, eccentric - Margaret Atwood

Probably as near a masterpiece as we are likely to see this year . . . it is a novel full of riches - MARTYN GOFF, DAILY TELEGRAPH

Puts everything else that has come my way this year in the shade - GUARDIAN

A clever, high-spirited performance - New Yorker

Janet Frame (1924-2004) is New Zealand's most famous writer. She was a novelist, poet, essayist and short-story writer. 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.

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