The Fossil Pits

The story of Walter Mantell’s 1848 journey down the east coast of the South Island, to set aside reserves for Ngai Tahu within a large block purchased by the government, is told in counterpoint with a modern woman’s very different story of violence on a South Island farm. This absorbing novel about different ways of seeing the land, and about the deals we make with each other in politics and in love, is finely observed and evocative.

Tim Corballis is the award-winning author of two earlier novels, Below and Measurement, and holder of the 2005 Berlin Writer’s Residency.

Praise for The Fossil Pits

Lovely writing. RADIO NZ

Corballis lives up to his rep with his third novel. An unusual and gripping tale of a government commissioner in the mid-19th century, told in counterpoint to a contemporary account of violence on a South Island farm.
LeafSalon

...the novel is imbued with a sense of delicate, otherworldly calm, decorated here and there with glorious turns of phrase. ...two very different eras are evoked and subsequently brought together with a subtle, unassuming grace. Varsity.co.nz