The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke

‘A historical love letter to London, a coming-of-age story, a love story… do yourself a favour, read it’ – Stella Duffy‘A riveting vision of the world seen from the inside out. The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke is a gutsy, searing and totally absorbing read. I loved it all the way’‘Made streets I’ve walked a thousand times seem new and strange’ – Damian Barr‘Hemi has a voice that redresses some of the air-brushed history of empire but more than anything his novel is a fascinating coming of age’ * NB Magazine *‘The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke is many things: part unsparing colonial reckoning; part fraught coming-of-age memoir; part PT Barnum-inflected tale of spectacle, showmanship and the picaresque’ * NZ Listener *‘A historical love letter to London, a coming-of-age story, a love story… do yourself a favour, read it’ - Stella Duffy || ‘A riveting vision of the world seen from the inside out. The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke is a gutsy, searing and totally absorbing read. I loved it all the way’ || ‘Hemi has a voice that redresses some of the air-brushed history of empire but more than anything his novel is a fascinating coming of age’ - NB Magazine || ‘Made streets I’ve walked a thousand times seem new and strange’ - Damian Barr || ‘The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke is many things: part unsparing colonial reckoning; part fraught coming-of-age memoir; part PT Barnum-inflected tale of spectacle, showmanship and the picaresque’ - NZ Listener‘A historical love letter to London, a coming-of-age story, a love story… do yourself a favour, read it’ - Stella Duffy || ‘A riveting vision of the world seen from the inside out. The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke is a gutsy, searing and totally absorbing read. I loved it all the way’ || ‘Hemi has a voice that redresses some of the air-brushed history of empire but more than anything his novel is a fascinating coming of age’ - NB Magazine || ‘Made streets I’ve walked a thousand times seem new and strange’ - Damian Barr || ‘The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke is many things: part unsparing colonial reckoning; part fraught coming-of-age memoir; part PT Barnum-inflected tale of spectacle, showmanship and the picaresque’ - NZ Listener

Tina Makereti’s first collection of stories, Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa, won the inaugural Fiction Award at Nga Kupu Ora, the Māori Book Awards, in 2011. Her debut novel, Where the Rekohu Bone Sings, won the same award in 2014 and was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. In 2016 she won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Pacific Region) for her story ‘Black Milk’.

Her second novel, The Imaginary Lives of James Pneke, was first published in New Zealand in 2018 and was longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

She has a PhD in creative writing and teaches at Massey University in New Zealand.

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