Stories | Carl Nixon

FISH 'N' CHIP SHOP SONG AND OTHER STORIES

Published in 2006 by Random House, NZ, and in Germany by CulturBooks in 2019. This book immediately went to number one on the New Zealand Fiction bestseller list. It was short listed for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Best First Book, Southeast Asia, and South Pacific Region.

Having won prizes in major national competitions for four of these stories, had several selected for anthologies of significant New Zealand writing, with numerous broadcast on radio and one even translated into Mandarin, Carl Nixon was long overdue for a book of his own, collecting his stories together.

Stories that evoke the South Island landscape as well as the New Zealand urban expanse. Stories that take surprising turns as they explore such things as saving a pet parrot, a fruiterer’s true love, a soldier’s return to Crete, an anticipated seduction and the dreams of a suburban mercenary.

There are characters to charm and alarm the reader, characters that are startlingly different and characters that are just like us. There are songs of love and tales of loss, there’s humour and there’s poignancy. Each beautifully told story resonates with a moving depth of emotional understanding.

Reviews

ANTHOLOGIES

THE THIRD CENTURY

Story

The Last Over

Editor
Graeme Lay

Tandem Press, 1999

ESSENTIAL NEW ZEALAND SHORT STORIES

Story

My Father Running With a Dead Boy

Editor
Owen Marshall

Random House / Vintage, 2002

New Edition, 2009

THE BEST NEW ZEALAND FICTION VOLUME 5

Story

My Beautiful Balloon

Editor

Owen Marshall

Random House / Vintage, 2008

SUNDAY 22

Story

My Father Running With a Dead Boy and WEIGHT

Editor

Owen Marshall

Random House / Vintage, 2006

BOY'S OWN STORIES

Story

Like Wallpaper

Editor
Graeme Lay

Tandem Press, 2000

LIKE WALLPAPER: NEW ZEALAND SHORT STORIES FOR TEENAGERS

Story

Like Wallpaper

Editor
Barbara Else

Random House, 2005

THE BEST NEW ZEALAND FICTION VOLUME 3

Story

Rocking Horse Road

Editor

Fiona Kidman

Random House / Vintage, 2006

Let's Tell This Story Properly

Story

If These Walls had Ears

Editor

Ellah Wakatama Allfrey

Dundurn, Toronto, 2015

AUTHOR'S CHOICE

Story

My Father Running With a Dead Boy

Editor

Owen Marshall

Penguin Books, 2001

THE NEW ZEALAND BOOK OF THE BEACH 2

Story

My Beautiful Balloon

Editor

Graeme Lay

David Ling, 2008

THE BEST NEW ZEALAND FICTION VOLUME 4

Story

The Last Good Day of Autumn

Editor

Fiona Farrell

Random House / Vintage, 2007

SECOND

VIOLINS

Story

The Portfolio

Editor

Marco Sonzogni

Random House / Vintage, 2008

THE PENGUIN BOOK OF CONTEMPORARY NEW ZEALAND SHORT STORIES

Story

Family Life

Editor

Paula Morris

Random House / Vintage, 2009