Author(s): John Summers

NZ Non Fiction

The Mermaid Boy is the first book by John Summers, a writer born and raised in Christchurch. It’s an unusual and distinctive book, telling true stories with the sort of crafted prose usually find in fiction. From mattress manufacture to Burmese medicine, these stories explore one man’s experience with the exotic and the mundane. Funny, perceptive, and often surprising, The Mermaid Boy introduces striking new ways to write about love, travel, and home.Already, Steve Braunias has praised The Mermaid Boy, writing, ‘These strange, fetching yarns of outsiders, losers and other average New Zealanders read like fiction, with their artful crafting of unlikely events – there’s a slow boat to China, a kid in a mermaid suit, and a dildo on a doorknob in a dingy flat in Christchurch. It’s non-fiction as murky realism, and it’s down low, observational, fun.’John’s creative non-fiction has been published in Hue & Cry Journal, Turbine, JAAM and is forthcoming in Sport. His travel writing and book reviews have appeared in the New Zealand Herald and the Listener and the Press. He is a cofounder of outdoors website upcountry.co.nz.