Kia ora e te whānau,

Please join us for the launch of Delirious, the new novel by Damien Wilkins. Novelist Elizabeth Knox will be launching the book for us.

Thursday 17 October
6pm
Unity Books Wellington
View more info on our Facebook page.

Te Herenga Waka University Press

‘A New Zealand novel of grace and humanity. How does Wilkins do it? These are flawed and immensely satisfying characters – you close your eyes at the faulty, circuitous routes they take. Delirious is a marvel of a book.’ —Witi Ihimaera

‘This is just a beautifully powerful, wonderful book.’ —Pip Adam, RNZ

‘Funny, sharp, sad and profound, Delirious made me laugh, think, weep and actually beat my breast. A masterpiece.’ —Elizabeth Knox, The Conversation

It’s time. Mary, an ex cop, and her husband, retired librarian Pete, have decided to move into a retirement village. They aren’t falling apart, but they’re watching each other – Pete with his tachcychardia and bad hip, Mary with her ankle and knee.

Selling their beloved house should be a clean break, but it’s as if the people they have lost keep returning to ask new things of them. A local detective calls with new information about the case of their son, Will, who was killed in an accident forty years before. Mary finds herself drawn to consider her older sister’s shortened life. Pete is increasingly haunted by memories of his late mother, who developed delirium and never recovered.

An emotionally powerful novel about families and ageing, Delirious dramatises the questions we will all face, if we’re lucky, or unlucky, enough. How to care for others? How to meet the new versions of ourselves who might arrive? How to cope? Delirious is also about the surprising ways second chances come around.