This is an auction for OWLS DO CRY by Janet Frame.

"Janet Frame is one of New Zealand's literary treasures, and her first novel, OWLS DO CRY, published in 1957, is a masterpiece. The novel chronicles the harrowing experiences of 14-year-old Daphne, diagnosed schizophrenic and confined to a mental institution. Much of Daphne's story unfolds in stream-of-consciousness ramblings, the hallucinatory, lyrical poetry that marks the music of madness."

• AudioFile (US)

"Not since Katherine Mansfield has a writer with the talent of Janet Frame come out of New Zealand . . . She writes in a lyrical flow of words which often come out with the rare beauty of poetry."

• Detroit News

"Occasionally one comes upon a book that vibrates fundamental nerves . . . Such a novel is OWLS DO CRY. It is significant not only for its technical nuances but for its conveyance of heartbreak. Poetical, symbolical, very often tangential in her account, as if she were too aware of certain passions to do anything but glance away from them, Miss Frame has fashioned an impressive first novel."

• New Leader (US)

"OWLS DO CRY glows with the inner light of Frame's human awareness - a cool flame that neither cauterizes nor heals but in some mystic ways purifies, substituting an essential beauty for superficial pain and squalor."

• Sunday Herald Tribune (US)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Recipient of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1989, Janet Frame (1924-2004) was admired for her startlingly original prose and formidable imagination.

Paperback 1985.

167 pages.

Good condition.

The cost of shipping is $4.95, or $6.95 by tracked mail. If you are on rural delivery and want tracked mail, the shipping cost will be $9.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.