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Everything becomes clearer in reverse – because sometimes, things have to be taken apart to be understood.
In the near future, an exact replica of the world’s tallest tower, Dubai’s Burj al Khalifa, is being built on New Zealand’s West Coast. It’s an exercise in economic stimulation and national confidence-building after a run of natural and financial disasters. Catherine is the engineer in charge of making sure it all works. She feels there is something wrong in the plans. Or is there something wrong in her?
I’m Working on a Building follows Catherine from the top of the tower to a geodesic dome in a park in London; from the Grand Lisboa in Macau to student accommodation in Wellington; from a South Auckland theme park to the Pompidou Centre; to reveal the way chance events can undo the best efforts of human beings to plan and build their lives and worlds.
‘The finest piece of writing in New Zealand fiction this century.’ —Carl Shuker, The Spinoff
Pip Adam is the author of five books, including the novels The New Animals, which won the 2018 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, and Nothing to See and Audition, which were both shortlisted; and the short story collection Everything We Hoped For, which won the 2011 NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction. Pip lives in Wellington, and holds the 2024 University of Canterbury Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing. She makes the Better off Read podcast.
