Green Sea: Lost in the New Zealand Bush

Book Author Breton Dukes
Rights Available World excl. NZ 


John Summers’ worst nightmare is getting lost in the bush.

He has always carefully – myopically, even – followed the track. Death lurks at the edge of his fear, as well as cold, hunger, loneliness and even humiliation. But what is the experience of being lost in the New Zealand bush actually like?

Summers talks to those who have survived – from a man who was found near death after 29 days in Kahurangi National Park to a woman who covered herself with earth to stay warm in the Orongorongo Valley. He explores what ‘lost’ really means, a metaphor for everything from addiction to a midlife crisis.

Part reportage, history and personal reflection, Green Sea looks closely at what keeps us going through the tangle of ordinary life – and at the mercies others show us when we feel most alone.

About the Author

John Summers is the author of The Commercial Hotel (2021) and The Mermaid Boy (2015). His writing has also appeared in Sport, North & South, New Zealand Geographic, Sunday Star-Times, Landfall, New Zealand Listener, Newsroom and The Spinoff. He was the winner of the 2022 Janet Frame Literary Trust Award for Imaginative Prose, a finalist in the Voyager Media Awards, and winner of the nonfiction category in the 2016 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards.

Description

Publisher
Te Herenga Waka University Press

Extent
208pp

Format
198 x 129mm

Binding
Hardback

Category
Fiction

Genre
Non-Fiction, Memoir & Biography, Natural World

Publication Date
September 2026

Rights Available:
World excl. NZ

Rights Agents:

World

Holly Hunter
holly.hunter@vuw.ac.nzz

Contact Te Herenga Waka University Press
about this book

The book title link will automatically be added to your message.

A compelling investigation into human vulnerability in the face of nature’s indifference. Haunting, absorbing, and deeply close to home

Naomi Arnold, author of Northbound

I will read anything that John Summers writes. . . . Warm, enquiring, intelligent and authentic.

Kiran Dass, Kete Books on The Commerical Hotel (2021)

Summers is an honest and careful writer, not a word out of place, always thinking.

Steve Braunias, Newsroom