Stephanie de Montalk: Animals Indoors

Victoria University Press

$19.95

Review: by Guy Allan*

Stephanie de Montalk writes with unusual grace. There are few smart, highly quotable phrasings but the words are never plain.

Some carry a slight smile, most are in a strangely neutral tone.

Although she might be telling a straightforward story or describing familiar objects, there is often also a sense of mystery.

A fleeting detail, clear in itself, will suggest something beyond:

His grandfather

is a herbalist

his mother

a young woman

who once stood

in front of a pine tree

in a blue and white printed dress.


Cool and steady, these poems set off many small resonances.

Animals Indoors is the best first book of poetry this year.

* Guy Allan is an Auckland trade union official and freelance writer.