Small bodies of water

Small bodies of water

Nina Powles

Book - 2021

"Home is many people and places and languages, some separated by oceans. Where is the place your body is anchored? Which body of water is yours? Is it that I've anchored myself in too many places at once, or nowhere at all? The answer lies somewhere between. Nina Mingya Powles first learned to swim in Borneo - where her mother was born and her grandfather studied freshwater fish. There, the local swimming pool became her first body of water. Through her life there have been others that have meant different things, but have still been, in their own way, home: from the wild coastline of New Zealand to a pond in northwest London. This collection of essays explores the bodies of water that separate and connect us, as well as everythin...g from migration, food, family, earthquakes, and the ancient lunisolar calendar to butterflies. In lyrical, powerful prose, Small Bodies of Water weaves together personal memories, dreams and nature writing. It reflects on a girlhood spent growing up between two cultures, and explores what it means to belong."--Publisher.

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Subjects
Powles, Nina > Homes and haunts.
Bodies of water.
Essays.
Nature.
Genres
Essays
Published
London : Canongate Books Ltd 2021.
Language
English
Main Author
Nina Powles (author)
Item Description
New Zealand author.
Physical Description
264 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9781838852153
  • A Girl Swimming Is a Body of Water
  • The Safe Zone
  • Where the Kowhai Blooms
  • The Language of Waves
  • Crushed Little Stars
  • Falling City
  • The Plum Rains
  • We Are All Dreaming of Swimming Pools
  • Unpeel
  • Faraway Love
  • Tender Gardens
  • Ache: A Swimming Diary
  • Tofu Heart
  • $$$
  • Museum of White Clouds
  • In the Archive of Waterfalls
  • Notes
  • Acknowledgements
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this insightful if scattered essay collection, poet Powles (Magnolia: Poems) reflects on her identity as a white and Malaysian Chinese New Zealander. Powles spent her childhood in Wellington, New Zealand; New York; and Shanghai, and often visited Malaysia, and her fragmented life serves as inspiration for these 16 essays that bounce between topics and often invoke the natural world. Viewing the waterfalls of Mount Kinabalu near her grandparents' home in Malaysia brings up memories of how the "inner geography" of their house was marked by "the blue coastline." In her parents' garden by the sea, she looks at the kowhai tree, the unofficial national flower of New Zealand, and recalls trying to spot similar trees in London. Cloud forests and pebbled shorelines are evoked in gorgeous imagery, but some entries tend to ramble, as with "The Safe Zone" which begins with a discussion of earthquakes before veering into Powles's obsession with orcas, and then turning into a brief recollection of the author receiving counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder after two men broke into her apartment. Not every piece is a winner, but nature-minded fans of the personal essay will find plenty to like. Agent: Kirsty McLachlan, Morgan Green Creatives. (Jan.)

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