'New Zealand's Cormac McCarthy' Pens Apocalyptic 'The Road' in 'Kokopu Dreams'

by staff writer

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND (RushPRnews) 01/12/09 -- One of the problems with the publishing industry is that it is centered in New York and London, for Englsh language novels, and very little good literature written in Australia and New Zealand ever makes it to the norther hemisphere.

It's a shame, really, because those two island nations Down Under have a lot of talent, especially in the fields of rock music, pop music, film making (Peter Jackson, Buz Lurhman) and climate change awareness (Tim Flannery). A very important book published in New Zealand in 2000, long before Cormac McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize for his dark novel of the coming apocalypse titled "The Road", deserves a new edition in North America and Europe -- not only because the writer Chris Baker is a time traveler worth getting acquainted with, but also because his book "Kokopu Dreams" is one of the most important novels written this century.

Who is Chris Baker? His work is not known in the publishing offices of Manhattan or London, but it should be. A native New Zealander, now in his 60, Baker grew up in small towns all around New Zealand and worked as a journalist and editor there to find work in fencing, bush and farm work, driving, construction work and concrete finishing. He was a vocal environmental campaigner in the 1970s, and now he lives in semi-retirement in the city of Dunedin. New Zealand seems so far away, but in a globalized world now connected by the Internet, it should not be off the radar anymore.

Case in point is Baker's terribly improbable yet achingly possible tale of life in the wake of a bird flu-like epidemic that almost wipes out the population of the entire world, leaving just a few survivors to seek refuge in New Zealand. In a recent interview with RushPRnews, Baker told this reporter: "I am currently confined to a wheelchair, with multiple sclerosis, and I am writing fulll time."

And write he should. His novel, first released by Huia Books in Wellington in 2000, has become something of a cult book for readers of post-apocalyptic fiction. It's a book that deserves a new edition from a New York or London publisher, here's why: "Kokopu Dreams" speaks right to the heart of the matter, from fears of bird flu pandemics to the ravages of global warming in the far distant future.

Here's a short snippet from Baker's futuristic novel: "Before the television died, haggard-looking people, politicians mostly, described how an illegally imported rabbit calicivirus had mutated. It wasn't killing rabbits any more -- and nor was it affecting cats and dogs, and not the native bat nor the little spotted kiwi. But it had been killing people with a type of hemorrhagic fever that had traveled from the Mackenzie Country up and down the land like the wind, from Bluff to Cape Reinga in about three weeks. And that was the good news..."

According to Baker's storyline, the world -- our world of today -- is now no longer as it once was. One critic Down Under called his book "immensely readable ... carried by the strength of its storytelling and its open attempt at bringing a non-Maori view of biculturalism into our literature."


Said another: "'Kokopu Dreams' is an old story. Just about everyone loves old stories, especially when they are as well told as this one.
New Zealand is the setting, and what better place to set a story of legend and magic? Why else would that other Arthurian-derived story 'The Lord of the Rings' be filmed here?" - John Connor, New Zealand Herald

'Kokopu Dreams' describes a "28 Days Later" kind of story mixed in with themes from McCarthy's "The Road" (yet published six years earlier!), and here's the plot, in a nutshell: A virus is on the loose and has killed almost all of the inhabitants of New Zealand, cats, dogs, and people alike. The survivors now not only have to try and build a new life for themselves in the remains, they also have to fight off marauders and bad guys at the same time. They also have to fight "evil spirits" they only knew from myths before. It's a thrilling story, scary and heroic at the same time.

"Kokopu Dreams" deserves a new place in the reading rooms of North America and Europe. Make room for Chris Baker's riveting,spellbinding book. It's about our future, worldwide. It shouldn't be a book that only finds readers in New Zealand.

What's a kokopu? He's a mythological entity from New Zealand's ancient folklore, and he's watching over us all now, too. Read this book and weep. At the same time, you will feel empowered and energized to remake this world we live in now.

Product Details
Title: Kokopu Dreams
Paperback: 230 pages
Publisher: Huia Books, New Zealand
Release Date: currently available worldwide via Internet order sites