News Release
For immediate release
14 August 2006
Literary Line-up Goes Back 2 Back
Thrillers go back-to-back with science, poetry is paired with Polynesian novels, and East Germany’s obsession with
secrets appears alongside a haunting tale set in Nazi Germany, in the New Zealand Book Council’s latest literary line-up
for Wellington.
Book Council Chief Executive Karen Ross is confident there’s something for everyone in the Back 2 Back season, running
from Wednesday 30 August to Tuesday 12 September.
First female Director-General of the British Security Service (MI5), Dame Stella Rimington, will be talking about her
action-packed thrillers At Risk (2004) and Secret Asset (2006) on Wednesday 30 August. The following night,
international best-selling science writer Dava Sobel will be discussing her latest book, The Planets (2006).
Poetry, biography and fiction take unusual twists and turns in the hands of Montana New Zealand Book Award winners Chris
Price, Martin Edmond and chair, Bill Manhire, at lunchtime on Wednesday 6 September, while Tahitian writer Célestine
Hitiura Vaite will be discussing her trilogy of award-winning novels on Thursday 7 September.
Australian writer Anna Funder lifts the lid on the ultimate Big Brother with her award-winning book of true stories from
behind the Berlin Wall, Stasiland (2004), on Monday 11 September; and award-winning writer Markus Zusak takes the stage
the next night with his harrowing novel, The Book Thief (2005), in which Death is the narrator and a young girl steals
books from Nazi book-burnings.
Further information on the six Back 2 Back events is attached.
The New Zealand Book Council is a not-for-profit organisation focused on bringing books and people together.
ENDS