The Gorse Blooms Pale - Dan Davin’s Southland Stories

Abstract

These two new collections of Dan Davin’s short fiction have a friendly, nostalgic appearance. With matching gloss white hardback covers, vigorous title fonts, and bright chunky artwork by Jenny Cooper, they are faintly reminiscent of New Zealand school journals; my twelve-year-old son, spotting them on the table beside me, assumed they were holiday reading I had picked up on his behalf. Between the covers, however, they are revealed to be substantial, many-faceted works that provide, along with the stories, a wealth of meticulously organised and annotated detail that richly rewards the concentrated reader.