Lenny is "a perfectly unremarkable 20-year old who just happens to be in a wheelchair". He's there because of a rugby accident and he doesn't want to live any more. So he kills himself, in front of a parish priest.

Expat Kiwi author Adam Christopher tells Stephen Jewell how his superhero novel was born and why he won’t base a story in New Zealand.

May’s Writers and Readers Festival has a diverse lineup of international guests to tempt lovers of all genres, writes Linda Herrick.

If you were to write a story set in Bombay, as the poet Jeet Thayil prefers to call the city now known as Mumbai in his outstanding debut novel, you don't have to work too hard.

Tumbling tresses, midnight-pool eyes, alabaster brow. None of these features in the debut novelist's publicity photo should be held against her.

Bronwyn Sell likes to give her books away, and usually it's not a hard sell. But any mention of a New Zealand author sparks a doubt in her friends.

Santa chose the perfect present for a penguin fan like me when he put Planet Penguin in my stocking at Christmas.

Ayad Akhtar's debut novel American Dervish concerns seldom-explored territory in American literature: What does it mean to be both Muslim and American? Here's our chat with Akhtar.