Two Books Lauched by Vaughan Rapatahana
TWO BOOKS LAUNCHED BY VAUGHAN
RAPATAHANA
TWO BOOK LAUNCHES TOO
FRIDAY 26 JULY. 2013 @
Unhinged Productions, 65 Cobden St, GISBORNE. 7
PM.
Following the book launch there will be a mix of open
mic. and planned poetry and music. Cash bar, wine + beer.
FREE ADMISSION Kapa Haka.
SUNDAY 4
AUGUST, 2013 @ Nectar Lounge, Kingslander Hotel, New North
Road, AUCKLAND 3PM.
will close at 12 midnight
Full
restaurant and bar facilities available. Live
band Lip Service

SOUTHERN ALPS, AOTEAROA-NEW ZEALAND.
RAPTAHANA IS A LONG-TERM
RESIDENT IN HONG KONG, BORN & BRED IN AOTEAROA-NEW ZEALAND
AND WITH STRONG TIES TO PHILIPPINES, P.R. CHINA AND OTHER
ASIAN VISTA.
HAS HOME IN TE ARAROA, EAST COAST.
TWO
BOOKS – TOA - a novel
- china as kafka
(Phoenix Edition) – a further collection of
poetry.
-
TOA: A NOVEL
Kei muri i te awa kapara he tangata
ke, mana te ao, he ma.
“BEHIND THE
TATTOOED FACE, A STRANGER STANDS.
HE
OWNS THE EARTH. HE IS WHITE.”
Vaughan Rapatahana’s first novel is a rollicking road trip through the ‘skinny country’ where a guerilla war is raging between Indigenous rebels and a Pākehā government controlled by foreign interests. Redneck assassins, secret-agents, biker gangs and feminist groups all cross paths as Mahon, an ex-university philosophy lecturer, and his gun ‘Molly’ blast their way across the country in a black Mark IV.

While homage is paid to Vaughan Rapatahana’s existential and post-modern heroes, the voice is indubitably his own: sardonic, hectic, eclectic, at times laugh-out-loud funny and always deliciously subversive. — James Norcliffe (Robert Burns Fellow)
--
china as kafka: a further collection of poetry

“Rapatahana’s poems make significant
patterns out of the randomness of life’s events and give
succinct and effective voice to the peculiarly modern
condition of the global nomad at once home everywhere and
home nowhere…”
~ David
Eggleton, Editor of Landfall, Aotearoa-New
Zealand
“Brilliant, poignant, sometimes surreal
images and passages abound…This collection is obviously a
huge and ambitious piece of work...”
~ Patricia Prime, Reviewer for
Takahe, Aotearoa-New Zealand
“Rapatahana’s unique
techniques are particularly effective…Rapatahana forces
readers to mull each line carefully…”
~ Michael Tsang, Reviewer for Asian
Cha, Hong Kong
“We should look forward to the next
book from this difficult and important poet.”
~ Scott Hamilton, Reading the Maps
blogspot.
ENDS