Civilisation is Steve Braunias at his best, the scavenger of social lodestone, rich, fascinating and occasionally disturbing stories of settlements-from Kawakawa in the north, to Mosgiel in the south, and Samoa and Antarctica over the seas-and the people who live in them, their lives, loves, aspirations, and sometimes dark secrets.
"In this funny, moving, sometimes terrifying book our country reveals itself; people and places are never as they first appear. Full of astonishing phrases, insights and provocations, Civilisation is like a series of great New Zealand novels bound up in one extraordinary book"
Emily Perkins
"Steve Braunias could be a character in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, traipsing to places like St Bathans and Mercer, inviting himself into homes to seek out those little nuggets. More often than not he finds them"
