2015 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel.

Wellington-based Paul Mannering's voracious reading and writing habit began at age 8 after his family's black and white TV set blew up during the opening credits of an episode of Space 1999. This personal trauma and some odd reading material (Forensic medicine textbooks and years of Reader's Digest) has shaped much of his writing since. Engines of Empathy will be Paul's fourth book, following The Man Who Could Not Climb Stairs and Other Strange Stories (2011), Tankbread (Permuted Press 2013) and Tankbread 2: Immortal (Permuted Press, 2013).