Sole Survivor

Plumb #3

by Maurice Gee

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

231 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Maurice Gough Gee was a New Zealand novelist. He was one of New Zealand's most distinguished and prolific authors, having written over thirty novels for adults and children, and having won numerous awards both in New Zealand and overseas, including multiple top prizes at the New Zealand Book Awards, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the UK, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, the Robert Burns Fellowship and a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement. In 2003 he was recognised as one of New Zealand's greatest living artists across all disciplines by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, which presented him with an Icon Award.
Gee's novel Plumb (1978) was described by the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature to be one of the best novels ever written in New Zealand. He was also well-known for children's and young adult fiction such as Under the Mountain (1979). He won multiple top prizes at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and in 2002 he was presented with the prestigious Margaret Mahy Award by the Children's Literature Foundation in recognition of his contributions to children's literature.

Reviews

[Piper · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sexual politics in this one are definitely a hard sell in the era of the male loneliness epidemic! I think Maurice Gee had sympathy for social groups broader society didn’t necessarily like in 1980s when this was written. In the 2020s he still has sympathy for groups society doesn’t necessarily like but those groups have just changed. So this book has probably been a bit hard to swallow for most of its existence for different reasons. Given the context of the wider series I’m inclined to read this in an empathetic way but probably one for the diehard Gee fans only.

That being said I think it’s very worth reading - Meg is the best book in the trilogy for me but I did feel like I needed this one to reflect on and disconnect myself from the Plumbs. It does feel like I’ve lived among them for years and now it’s time to get on with it.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really did become swept up in this series by the end. It’s masterful in a sort of humble way - there’s nothing overtly spectacular about the writing, but it just keeps going deeper and getting richer - a quiet, homely, focused epic.