{"product_id":"taken-9781800165700","title":"Taken","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePulmulla is worried her vision of the future will come true.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBiligiri just wants to get home. Besides, he's in love for the first time, and will be a father in 22 months.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTant-Meisie is lonely and going around in circles. She meets famous and eccentric people though.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHannibal Solo thought he was retired - until Carroll came along, and she's hard case.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOn top of this, he has voices in his head.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Absorbing and lyrical, and poignant in the elephants' message. Like Heathcote Williams' Sacred Elephant before it, Taken deserves a wide readership.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Gareth Patterson, author of The Secret Elephants and Beyond the Secret Elephants.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"A writer of striking originality with qualities of daring and humour that are rare. Like Lloyd Jones, Alex has the ability to create a landscape so vivid the reader feels he is walking down a dusty road or in the hold of a ship.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Elizabeth Smither, novelist and Poet Laureate of New Zealand\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"There is energy and confidence on every page. The way you inhabit your lines is remarkable.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Lloyd Jones author of Mr Pip and Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Award.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"I was greatly impressed by Taken - an accomplished and poignant story. Here was a writer of considerable potential should he decide to write longer fiction...\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Tessa Duder CNZM OBE, author of the Alex quartet, winner of Storyline Margaret Mahy Medal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"I've read and re-read your story, and I think this: It is intriguing, beautifully-crafted, moving and poetic... It brings the knowing eye of elephants to bear on the reader, creating the feeling of injustice I always have when I'm close to them. It's a parable of imperialism. For all these reasons and more, I loved it.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Bruce Ansley, author of A long Slow Affair of the Heart, A Fabled Land, and Coast: A New Zealand Journey, winner Best Illustrated Non-fiction Book at the New Zealand Post Book Awards\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Beautiful, eye opening, exquisitely absorbing, gentle and powerful.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Danielle Mathieson, New Zealand artist\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Vanguard Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50867713605906,"sku":"9781800165700","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c2d8496a-3841-4807-9ab8-663a2a79e8c9.jpg?v=1737703115","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/taken-9781800165700","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}