Times Like These

A quietly astonishing collection of personal essays from one of New Zealand's most exciting new voices.

'Michelle Langstone writes as she performs-with wit, humanity and a fierce vulnerability, holding on tight.'
- Diana Wichtel

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'These essays about love, loss, and memories of night voyages with her dad glow from within, like phosphorescence on the sea. Just what we need in times like these.' - Diana Wichtel

'Evocative, lyrical, surprising, Times Like These is built from a heart that bursts out of every page.' - Toby Manhire

Childhood, family, and death; anxiety and release; grief and the hope of new life: these are some of the themes that underpin Michelle Langstone's debut collection.

Michelle is interested in the way the concept of identity is shaken during a major event, and in the feeling world at its most raw and intimate. These essays speak to one another across a timeline, examining her world before the death of her father, and life after his passing, when she recalibrates the shape of a universe without him. Essays on acting, fertility and IVF, and intergenerational love round out a collection that is full of candour and humour.

Tender, poignant and moving, these intimate essays are perfectly formed and offer a shimmering portrait of the human condition.