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  • Published: 1 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9781869798611
  • Imprint: RHNZ Adult ebooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 464

Southern Style



The youth from the old colonies head to London, a mecca for hedonism, dangerous encounters and self-discovery in this vibrant, shocking novel byt the award-winning writer of Stonedogs.

The youth from the old colonies head to London, a mecca for hedonism, dangerous encounters and self-discovery in this vibrant, shocking novel by the award-winning writer of Stonedogs.

Craig Marriner’s second novel lifts the lid on the Big OE as his sprawling cast of young Southerners tackle London head on. There’s Lisa from Cape Town, class warrior and part-time drug dealer; Ryan the Aussie, with little to show for two years of overstaying but hangovers and hang-ups; and Alex from Auckland, fresh off the plane, a management graduate with the world at his feet, if he can grow up fast enough.

And there’s London itself, a stage that sets no limits on hedonism and personal discovery. The ancient city has never seemed so promising. Or so dangerous. Cockney villains tussle with blacks, establishment toffs tug invisible strings, but newcomers from the East could be the jokers in the pack as old institutions are threatened by the forces of a globalised world. In the midst of it all, the neo-explorers are set to learn just how far from home they really are, how much London has to give, and the price it can demand in return.

In this brilliant novel, Marriner further develops the distinctive brand of fiction he introduced in the jaw-dropping Stonedogs. Southern Style rubs philosophy and polemic up against a story that swings from the hilarious to the shocking and every shade in between.

  • Published: 1 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9781869798611
  • Imprint: RHNZ Adult ebooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 464

About the author

Craig Marriner

Craig Marriner is New Zealand’s response to Irvine Welsh and Quentin Tarantino. The raw and scathing prose of his first novel, Stonedogs, broke new ground and the work went on to win the Deutz Medal for Fictionand the New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction at the 2002 Montana Book Awards. It was set in the world of gangs, drugs and the underbelly of New Zealand. Like Alan Duff, Marriner was raised in Rotorua, left school early and describes himself as living ‘near the edge of the rails’ before taking off to the Australian mines. He was a Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow in 2004 and currently lives in London.
While Crimespace found Stonedogs not a ‘particularly easy or pleasant read . . . [it] is manic, rapidfire, and insane at points’, it also had the reviewer laughing out loud. He concluded: ‘Dark, violent, very in your face, this isn’t going to be a book for everybody. But for anybody who does pick it up — I think I can guarantee it will stay with you for quite a while.’Salient found Southern Style‘a complex novel, politically charged, engaged with racial issues and a damn good story too’. Commenting on Marriner’s use of dark humour and how he ‘further raises the intellectual bar with repeated commentary on political, social and racial issues’, they concluded: ‘Southern Style is an exciting read. It is fast paced, thought-provoking, well-written and firmly cements Marriner’s status as one of New Zealand’s best up and coming writers.’

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