Montana New Zealand Book Awards - Fiction - 2006 finalists

The Award was won by Blindsight Maurice Gee (Penguin Books) and The Captive Wife by Fiona Kidman (Vintage) and Responsibility Nigel Cox (Victoria University Press) were joint runners up.

Blindsight Maurice Gee (Penguin Books) Winner
Blindsight is the story of a good though damaged man and his less than virtuous sister. As their childhood closeness unravels, Alice moves into her career in science (she's a mycologist), while Gordon descents into vagrancy and silence. For more than thirty years they do not meet. Then a young man appears at Alice's door, claiming a relationship she never knew she had. As he becomes part of her carefully guarded world, she cautiously begins to reveal the past. But is she telling him everything? Jealousy, ambition and love shape the fates of Alice and Gordon in this compelling story of loyalty and family ties.

The Captive Wife Fiona Kidman (Vintage) Runner up
When Betty Guard steps ashore in Sydney, in 1834, she meets with a heroine's welcome. Her survival during a four-month kidnapping ordeal amongst Taranaki Maori is hailed as nothing short of a miracle. But questions about what really happened slowly surface within the élite governing circles of the raw new town of Sydney. Jacky Guard, ex-convict turned whaler, had taken Betty as his wife to his New Zealand whaling station when she was fourteen. After several years and two children, the family is returning from a visit to Sydney when their barque is wrecked near Mount Taranaki. A battle with local Maori follows, and Betty and her children are captured. Her husband goes to seek a ransom, but instead England engages in its first armed conflict with New Zealand Maori when he is persuaded to return with two naval ships. After her violent rescue, Betty's life amongst the tribe comes under intense scrutiny. Based on real events, this is the compelling story of a marriage, of love and duty, and the quest for freedom in a pioneering age.

Dreamhunter Elizabeth Knox (Fourth Estate)
In a world where select people can enter "The Place" and find dreams of every kind to share with others for a fee, a fifteen-year-old girl is training to be a dreamhunter when her father disappears, leaving her to carry on his mysterious mission.

Responsibility Nigel Cox (Victoria University Press) Runner up
Responsibility is a darkly comic thriller set in contemporary Berlin. Martin Rumsfield, an international museums expert from New Zealand, is feeling hemmed in by the pressures of work and the demands of family. When a shady character from his past turns up with a sure-fire plan to scam the scammers, Martin is seduced by the glamour of a walk on the wild side. Then, in a shattering moment, he realises that he has put what he values most at deadly risk. Responsibility is written with delicious ironic awareness of the hardboiled detective fiction clichés which lie behind every twist and turn. But a darker undercurrent of moral consequence is never far from the surface, and it is this that finally returns Martin from self-indulgent fantasy to a deep appreciation that in steady embrace of his responsibilities lies the promise of a richer, truer life.

Watch of Gryphons and other stories Owen Marshall (Vintage)
The empty tussock dryness of New Zealand's South Island, the ancient stone buildings of Italy's Perugia, unsolved murder, the capricious indignity of Alzheimer's disease, adoption - there is a rich variety of setting and subject in this new collection by Owen Marshall.