NEW NOVEL LAUnCHED
On Monday 4th May at 5.30pm Paul’s new novel, The Sculptor of Rūnanga, will be launched at Red Books, Mackay Street, Greymouth.
The story of the novel begins locally. Mike Garvey lives in Rūnanga. He is a sculptor, but also an ordinary bloke shaped by the rhythms of the West Coast. Like many others, he watches the unfolding devastation in Gaza from a distance—through screens and through headlines. But where others turn away, or carry on, Garvey finds himself unable to absorb and continue. His response is at once simple and extreme: a hunger strike.
What begins in a pup tent in Greymouth’s civic square becomes an act of moral insistence. As days pass and his body weakens, Garvey’s protest gathers attention, confusion, admiration, and doubt in equal measure. Friends, strangers, and sceptics enter the orbit of his decision. Some walk beside him. Others try to dissuade him. All are forced to confront the uncomfortable question he embodies.
The novel unfolds through a chorus of voices: Garvey’s own journal, written with clarity and urgency as his strength fades; the testimonies of those who accompany him; and the fragments of a world that continues, uneasily, around him.
As the journey extends beyond Māwhera and then beyond Aotearoa, the scale of the narrative widens—but its focus remains intimate, anchored in the lived reality of a single body under strain. The political is never abstract. It is measured in hunger, fatigue, resolve, and the fragile persistence of hope.
The Sculptor from Rūnanga confronts the reader with a stark and enduring dilemma: in a world saturated with images of suffering, what does it mean to act?
Refusing easy answers, Paul Maunder’s novel is at once local and global, reflective and urgent. It captures the textures of West Coast life alongside the vast reach of contemporary conflict. It honours the ordinary while tracing the contours of an extraordinary decision and at the conclusion honours the principled activism of the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa—especially the courage shown by the members of the Greymouth/Māwhera group, who have taken a public stand in a rural town where doing so is no small thing—as a vital touchstone.
Absorbing, unsettling, and ultimately haunting, this is a work that lingers—challenging readers to consider not only what they see, but what they are prepared to do in response.
‘Absorbing, quirky and powerful, this is a novel that will stay with you as we confront the everyday atrocities of our present world.’ Paddy Richardson, NZ novelist.
At the launch there will be a welcome from Catherine Woollett, some words from the author, a reading and a Q&A session. Books will be on sale at the special price of $15 and donations possible to the Palestinian cause. All are welcome.
The Sculptor from Rūnanga
Paul Maunder
Te Puawai Co-operative Society
ISBN 9 780 473 77785 2
Available locally from Paper Plus or Red Books or nationally from Wheelers, Nationwide Book Distributors or from wkcultur@gmail.com.
