What do you think?
Rate this book
The Secret History of Modernism
A chance meeting has New Zealand writer Laszlo Winter thinking back to his time in London in the late 1950s. There was Australian Samantha Conlan, fleeing an affair with Freddy Goldstein, who carried with him a dark history. Rajiv was an earnest young Indian at work on a study of Yeats, and Heather was the girl with whom Laszlo exchanged lessons on Shakespeare for lessons in love. There was all of that and more, and then there was Laszlo, knocking blindly among them, despairing at his academic prospects, and gradually realising that he was, would only ever be, a storyteller. Now, years later, from the other side of the world, the people seem to spring to life again, in this beguiling work by one of New Zealand's foremost writers.
230 pages, Paperback
First published October 18, 2001
1 person is currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
C.K. Stead
68 books22 followersChristian Karlson Stead is a New Zealand writer whose works include novels, poetry, short stories, and literary criticism.
One of Karl Stead's novels, Smith's Dream, provided the basis for the film Sleeping Dogs, starring Sam Neill; this became the first New Zealand film released in the United States.
Mansfield: A Novel was a finalist for the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and received commendation in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region.
C. K. Stead was born in Auckland. For much of his career he was Professor of English at the University of Auckland, retiring in 1986 to write full-time. He received a CBE in 1985 and was admitted into the highest honour New Zealand can bestow, the Order of New Zealand in 2007.
One of Karl Stead's novels, Smith's Dream, provided the basis for the film Sleeping Dogs, starring Sam Neill; this became the first New Zealand film released in the United States.
Mansfield: A Novel was a finalist for the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and received commendation in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region.
C. K. Stead was born in Auckland. For much of his career he was Professor of English at the University of Auckland, retiring in 1986 to write full-time. He received a CBE in 1985 and was admitted into the highest honour New Zealand can bestow, the Order of New Zealand in 2007.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 22, 2026
I think I cared less for the 'story within a story' form of the book than the content itself which was extremely engaging. Many points felt too over-explained for my taste. This book fell into my hands at the perfect time (in a slump) and I loved reading it and will read more Stead, who as an author/narrator I found easy to connect with.
July 6, 2011
this will be my immediate reaction, perhaps at some point when I have calmed down I will be able to write a proper review. For an overly cerebreal book, it sure packed a mean punch. In spite of the convoluted style and plenty of foreshadowing, I was simply not prepared for the most succint, vivid and intimate yet dispassionate account of the holocaust that I have ever read. In fact, when I selected this book to read, there was nothing to indicate that it concerned itself with those events at all.
As it was, my irritaion with yet another callow, unlkable narrator and the excessive verbiage and stylized vocabulary had faded somewhat as I got used to the authors style and interested in the various threads of the tale he was telling. Perhaps I was lulled into thinking that not much more was going to be revealed as the author gathered the threads together for the ending. Suddenly we are in the midst of the backstory, the brother of the father of the lover of the woman that the narrator fancies, and its a hard story and we are given a sense of dread as the events play them selves out in brutal fashion. In these passages the writing is direct and forceful and somehow present even though written in the past tense. When the author picks up again in the present, the banal contradiction made me cringe.
As it was, my irritaion with yet another callow, unlkable narrator and the excessive verbiage and stylized vocabulary had faded somewhat as I got used to the authors style and interested in the various threads of the tale he was telling. Perhaps I was lulled into thinking that not much more was going to be revealed as the author gathered the threads together for the ending. Suddenly we are in the midst of the backstory, the brother of the father of the lover of the woman that the narrator fancies, and its a hard story and we are given a sense of dread as the events play them selves out in brutal fashion. In these passages the writing is direct and forceful and somehow present even though written in the past tense. When the author picks up again in the present, the banal contradiction made me cringe.
October 14, 2018
Really good - makes me want to read a lot more of his stuff.
June 20, 2012
For me, this novel well stereotypes New Zealand character. During my sabbatical here I have only read Kiwi authors, hoping to better understand NZ through its literature. This novel's narrator is bright and ambitious, but also extremely private, and unable to unravel or articulate his inner experiences because he has intellectualized them so completely. So Kiwi. CK Stead is a master stylist and the language is never rough or startling. While the plot is not the central focus here, the story features a subtle and skillful untangling of a complex life-long almost-relationship.
September 2, 2025
The Themes of Life - On Repeat and Parallel
One of the more satisfying novels I have read in a couple of decades - the length of time in which it has been published in fact. CK Stead - a writer from NZ who seems as comfortable writing about the UK of the 1950s - of Germany during the Nazi era, of the Holocaust - of getting the feel of Australia - of NZ - with asides on Israel and Palestine which ring true now in the era of Zionist Genocide - of a set of characters including one from India all rubbing up against the poets and writers from Shakespeare to those of the 19th and 20th century - it is the brilliant observation from a true man of letters!
One of the more satisfying novels I have read in a couple of decades - the length of time in which it has been published in fact. CK Stead - a writer from NZ who seems as comfortable writing about the UK of the 1950s - of Germany during the Nazi era, of the Holocaust - of getting the feel of Australia - of NZ - with asides on Israel and Palestine which ring true now in the era of Zionist Genocide - of a set of characters including one from India all rubbing up against the poets and writers from Shakespeare to those of the 19th and 20th century - it is the brilliant observation from a true man of letters!
July 30, 2023
A stunning book that packs a punch perhaps one of the most thought provoking books I have read on the Holocaust
The subject matter is almost injected by stealth and is weaved into a intricate story of love hope betrayal while sharing an unmitigated story of lost love and the benefits of old age and that hindsight that it brings in latter life
The subject matter is almost injected by stealth and is weaved into a intricate story of love hope betrayal while sharing an unmitigated story of lost love and the benefits of old age and that hindsight that it brings in latter life
July 4, 2011
Was okay - nothing startling
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews