Audition – Pip Adam

READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS

Oversized people crammed in a space ship hurtle through space. Experimental fiction about New Zealand’s unjust justice system, the state of our prisons and how to be a good coloniser.

It was one of the worst places Alba had ever been which was saying something because she had slept outside a lot, and once spent the night in the boot of a car while people outside the car talked loudly about setting it on fire, but she hated the prison so much. Stanley had never been anywhere like it, he had grown up in a loving house with parents who understood and supported him. But it was bad, no matter who you were.

● I am always apprehensive about reading Pip Adam books because they are usually so genre-bending I find them difficult to follow. I know this is a sign of Adam’s complete genius but it means my reading experience is a bit of a rollercoaster. Audition was no different. At first about giants in space, then prisoners in a secure facility then about colonisers arriving in a new land. I wouldn’t be surprised if in years to come we discover Adam has invented a new genre and if so at that time I will-re-read everything she has written. But for now I am doing my best to understand and enjoy them as they are written. – Rachel

● It’s pretty early on in Audition that you basically have to submit to Pip Adam’s writing and just roll with whatever the hell is happening. You can do that in good faith though, knowing you are in the hands of an author who is undeniably brilliant and very much in control of a story that at times feels chaotic and bewildering.– Suzy

Published 2023
Giramondo
223 pages