Author(s): Craig Marriner

NZ Fiction

Craig Marriner's second novel lifts the lid on the Big OE as his sprawling cast of young Southerners tackle London head on. There's Lisa from Cape Town, class warrior and part-time drug dealer; Ryan the Aussie, with little to show for two years of overstaying but hangovers and hang-ups; and Alex from Auckland, fresh off the plane, a management graduate with the world at his feet, if he can grow up fast enough. And there's London itself, a stage that sets no limits on hedonism and personal discovery. The ancient city has never seemed so promising. Or so dangerous. Cockney villains tussle with blacks, establishment toffs tug invisible strings, but newcomers from the East could be the jokers in the pack as old institutions are threatened by the forces of a globalised world. In the midst of it all, the neo-explorers are set to learn just how far from home they really are, how much London has to give, and the price it can demand in return. In this brilliant new novel, Marriner further develops the distinctive brand of fiction he introduced in the jaw-dropping Stonedogs. Southern Style rubs philosophy and polemic up against a story that swings from the hilarious to the shocking and every shade in between.