Gee: Collected Short Stories

by Maurice Gee

A collection of stories exploring moments in the lives of ordinary people, including "The widow," "Schooldays," "Eleventh Holiday," and "Buried Treasure, Old Bones"

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

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]

Almost disadvantaged itself by the fact that the first story was so excellent that the rest couldn’t help but be mildly disappointing. Still one of the best writers of characters and relationships

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creates an impression that New Zealand of the 60s and 70s was full of rather joyless middle-aged and old people who needed to lighten up.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admire the way Maurice Gee depicts people and relationships, even when they are unpleasantly careless, or cruel.