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  • Published: 1 July 2012
  • ISBN: 9781869798741
  • Imprint: RHNZ Adult ebooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 295

A Breed of Women



'Tautly written, often poetic, and dramatic . . . a first-class novel.' - Sydney Morning Herald

A bestselling and influential novel, this compulsive story examines women's changing lives.

'One thing she had learnt was that she and Leonie belonged to a breed of women who were indestructible. They were survivors.'

Taking risks is something Harriet seems driven to do as she struggles to retain her identity as a woman in the face of opposing demands from society. Through her adolescence in rural New Zealand, two marriages and a television career, she steadfastly maintains her quest. But, in the end: What has she won? What had she lost?

'Tautly written, often poetic, and dramatic . . . a first-class novel.' - Sydney Morning Herald

  • Published: 1 July 2012
  • ISBN: 9781869798741
  • Imprint: RHNZ Adult ebooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 295

About the author

Fiona Kidman

Fiona Kidman has published over 30 books, including novels, poetry, non-fiction and a play. She has worked as a librarian, radio producer and critic, and as a scriptwriter for radio, television and film. The New Zealand Listener wrote: ‘In her craft and her storytelling and in her compassionate gutsy tough expression of female experience, she is the best we have.’

She has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships; in more recent years, The Captive Wife was runner-up for the Deutz Medal for Fiction and was joint-winner of the Readers’ Choice Award in the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and her short story collection The Trouble with Fire was shortlisted for both the NZ Post Book Awards and the Frank O’Connor Short Story Award. Her novel This Mortal Boy won the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize, the NZ Booklovers Award, the NZSA Heritage Book Award for Fiction and the Ngaio Marsh Crime Writing Award for Best Novel.

She was created a Dame (DNZM) in 1998 in recognition of her contribution to literature, and more recently a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour. ‘We cannot talk about writing in New Zealand without acknowledging her,’ wrote New Zealand Books. ‘Kidman’s accessible prose and the way she shows (mainly) women grappling to escape from restricting social pressures has guaranteed her a permanent place in our fiction.’

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Praise for A Breed of Women

I found this novel compulsive reading.

Sue McCauley, NZ Listener

Tautly written, often poetic, and dramatic . . . a first-class novel.

Sydney Morning Herald

A brave and personal book.

NZ Herald