All Her Lives – Ingrid Horrocks

READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS

All Her Lives is a collection of nine linked stories about women throughout the ages who have battled, persevered and instigated change, and whom are finding their place in society.

Did homecoming have to be this, too? Being outside, the sky turning velvet above the brims of the mountains, nothing moving but the water and the night birds, a couple of bleating sheep – and a sudden noise conjuring fragments of flesh, shattered faces. Mud. Stench. Homecoming was remembering a man with a bullet in his chest and his eyes on your face. It was pulling a wound closed, stitching two layers together and hoping it would hold, new skin growing into old.

RACHEL:
●  All Her Lives begins in 1919, post war and post the flu epidemic, with Evie, a nurse returning from war to resettle in rural New Zealand. And it ends with a story set in the “now” post the Covid epidemic and amid climate change reaction. Inbetween we meet many interesting women such as Truby King, the founder of Plunket, and author Mary Shelley’s mother, as well as everyday, ordinary women living their lives in New Zealand and internationally. 

The stories are human, but also political, historical and environmental. Many include factual elements and Horrocks provides an extensive afterward about the real events that influenced her stories. These include the flu epidemic, Plunket, the Karitane Hospital, women’s suffragettes movement, bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, 1981 Springbok Tour and the influence of NZ women on local architecture. 

The links between the stories are not overt but enough to feel that they belong together. I liked that they were lengthy (for short stories) so weren’t over in a flash and gave me more time to get to know everyone and feel connected to them.

Published 2025
Te Herenga Waka University Press
272 pages