COMP CLOSED | Book Giveaway | The Pets We Have Killed

The Pets We Have Killed
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We are very pleased to be giving away two copies of Barbara Else’s book ‘The Pets We Have Killed’, to our GrownUps members.

All you need to do to enter the draw is be a GrownUps member, make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter and fill in your details near the bottom of the page!

The Pets We Have KilledAbout The Pets We Have Killed

Internationally published New Zealand author Barbara Else returns with a short story collection, focusing on women as central characters in ways that will resonate with readers old and new.

Past. Present. Future.

In 1959 a schoolgirl is caught in the rivalry between two male teachers. In 1982 a New Zealander in her thirties is introduced to a snake in San Diego. In 2075 a government official drafts a summary of the first stage in NZ’s new-style elections.

These eighteen stories mark Barbara Else’s return to fiction for adults. They are notable for their range in genre and tone, from realism to science fiction and fantasy, from subversive humour and sharp satire to thoughtful and humane contemplation of the human condition. Many are about romantic relationships – fresh and new, would-be, or long gone. With Barbara’s trademark wit, all demonstrate how the problems women face change little as time passes …

Author Note

After I finished my memoir, Laughing at the Dark, I wanted to keep writing, so I began to work on a few story possibilities. I enjoyed working with the small literary form again. Within a few months, a variety of new stories appeared. They were more experimental than anything I’d written since the 1980s. There’s a ‘transcript’ from a female scientist: ’Darkling.’ There’s a draft report by a government official: ‘Our New Elections’. There’s a gentle story about a single mother of a teenage boy: ‘Moonbeams.’ There’s a quiet and savage story about a woman married to a 1980s misogynist: ‘Thrall’.

Whenever and wherever they’re set, and though they’ve been written from 2021 on, they spring from the silence expected of me while second-wave feminism was on the rise. One can grow very tired of being ignored and thought of as second-class. I’ve come to think that if our society could rid itself of misogyny, we would be much further on the way towards getting rid of other inequities to do with race and culture, gender and poverty, everything.

I plucked up the nerve to look back at some already-published work. A few of those stories matched well with the new ones. I looked at pieces never-published and found some that felt fresh, even more apposite than when I’d written them, especially ‘The Pets We Have Killed’. That story is a warning, really, about what might happen if we can’t do something about the gender divide, the still-present inability to understand each other simply as human beings with our own wants and needs. The title of the collection refers to how we, whatever gender, inadvertently or from lack of courage, deny ourselves or are denied the warmth and support of being loved. No actual pets are killed. I’m not counting the pigs in ‘Straitjackets’ or the wolves in ‘Magician.’

About the Author

Barbara Else is a best-selling writer in many genres. She was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature in 2005 and holds the Margaret Mahy Medal for services to children’s literature. She was Writing Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka in 1999 and University of Otago College of Education/Creative New Zealand Children’s Writing Fellow in 2016. Her work has had overseas publication, won national and international awards and been shortlisted for major prizes.

The Warrior Queen, her first novel for adults, was a best seller and finalist for the Montana NZ Book Awards. Among her latest books are Go Girl: A storybook of epic NZ women, a finalist in the NZ Book Awards for Children

and Young Adults 2019 and Laughing at the Dark: A memoir (2023), shortlisted in the 2024 Ockham Awards for general non-fiction.

She is co-partner in TFS Literary Services with her husband Chris Else, and works as an editor, mentor and manuscript assessor. She lives in Dunedin, UNESCO City of Literature.

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Terms and conditions

    1. You must be a GrownUps member and receive our newsletter to be eligible to win.
    2. Competition closes on the 15th January 2025, winners will be notified via email by 16th January 2025.
    3. It is your responsibility to ensure you correctly enter a New Zealand postal address where the prize can be sent. GrownUps will not take responsibility for prizes sent to incorrect addresses.
    4. Winners are drawn at random by the GrownUps administration team.
    5. GrownUps employees and family are not eligible to enter.
    6. By entering the giveaway, you approve for GrownUps to use your name on social media as winner of the competition.
    7. One entry per household.
    8. Prize in non transferrable.
    9. You must reside in New Zealand – the prize can only be redeemed within New Zealand.
    10. You must be over 50 years of age to enter, please check your details are correct in your membership dashboard.