{"product_id":"chemistry","title":"Chemistry","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the author of \u003cem\u003eDelirious\u003c\/em\u003e, winner of the 2025 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, \u003cem\u003eChemistry\u003c\/em\u003e – first published in 2002 – is a riveting story about families in crisis.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJamie, a forty-one-year-old drug addict recovering from surgery, goes somewhere he hasn’t been in years – home, to Timaru, where his brother happens to be a chemist and his sister a doctor. Surely those two, with their access to pharmaceuticals – and their blood ties – will help him. And if that fails, their insomniac mother has various prescriptions rattling around in the cupboards of the old family home.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAn old hand at deception, Jamie occupies one pole in this novel; at the other there is Sally, who is on the methadone programme and has a colicky baby, and Shane, the father of the baby, who has tried to go straight and is now watching his life leak away at the cheese factory.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFastened hard to small-town New Zealand, \u003cem\u003eChemistry \u003c\/em\u003emoves with great force to an unexpected and eloquent conclusion.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e‘A work of quietly cumulative power. Wonderfully funny, thoughtful, thought-provoking, and moving.' —Elizabeth Knox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e‘Wilkins has managed to do that hard thing in this novel – write about his characters as citizens of a particular place and make that place real, multiple and textured. His clear and beautiful prose and his sinewy grip on narrative make it a joy to read.’ —Lydia Wevers\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e‘A terrifically good book, so cleverly constructed and managed. It’s a work of real tenderness.’ —Jim Crace\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDamien Wilkins\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of fifteen books, most recently \u003cem\u003eDelirious\u003c\/em\u003e, winner of the 2025 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, and \u003cem\u003eAspiring\u003c\/em\u003e, winner of the Young Adult Fiction Award in 2020. His first novel, \u003cem\u003eThe Miserables\u003c\/em\u003e, won the New Zealand Book Award for fiction in 1994, and he has been long-listed three times for the Dublin Literary Award. He received a Whiting Writers’ Award from the Whiting Foundation, New York, in 1992, and an Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Award in 2013. He is a professor at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington and Director of the International Institute of Modern Letters Te Pūtahi Tui Auaha o Te Ao. As a musician and songwriter, he writes and records as the Close Readers.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Upstart","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47237829656799,"sku":"9781776922987","price":28.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0685\/2185\/3151\/files\/9781776922987__26168.webp?v=1756015126","url":"https:\/\/lamplightbooks.pro\/products\/chemistry","provider":"Lamplight Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}