After Z-Hour

by Elizabeth Knox

Stranded by a South Island storm, six people usurp the stillness of an old house. As they tell the fragments of their story, a seventh voice responds: a young New Zealand serviceman who died in 1920, soon after his return from France. As the storm deepens, the hauntings of the mind and the hauntings of the house become one. First published on Armistice Day 1987, After Z-Hour won the PEN Award for Best First Book of Prose.

Genres: Fiction

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Elizabeth Knox was born in Wellington‚ New Zealand‚ and is the author of eleven novels and three novella and a book of essays.

Reviews

[Terry Savill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a first novel - each sentence viscous with consideration and content, each paragraph a cryptic load. The travails of the 'Western Front' in the South Island of NZ. Cleverly constructed, imaginatively realized and overall complete.
But in one night, can thrown-together strangers really expose each other's foundations so deeply?

[Mary-Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating layers within layers; a labyrinth of realities overlapping.

[Amy Linton]

Elizabeth Knox is one of my favorite writers. This novel, her first, however, was not for me. It feels like student work: earnest, awkward, full of keen observation, but formatted without enough grace to make the unpleasant characters understandable -- let alone sympathetic.
The story is told in seven voices, and each character speaks in a chapter, pouring out biographical details in a flood... well, enough said. It wasn't the novel for me today.

[Baz De · Rating 5 out of 5]

First novel by this writer I love. Bit rough at the start, and then intense.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read but difficult to follow in places...

[scarlettraces]

I do love Knox but I couldn't do this one. A little bit painfully awkward.

[Marcella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it when it was first released
Happy to see it coming out again
But pining for a new book Ms Knox :)

[Donald Schopflocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning of Elizabeth's enchantment with the fantastic.