This text grew out of the American author's attempts to focus his impressions of New Zealand's literary culture and relate its mental and moral landscape to that of the USA. Through an idiosyncratic selection of contemporary novels and films, Schafer opens up a complex and compelling world. The book explores the work of internationally celebrated writers such as Witi Ihimaera, Fiona Kidman, Ronald Morrison and Janet Frame, and the emerging New Zealand film industry and the handful of directors such as Jane Campion, Peter Jackson, Vincent Ward and Geoff Murphy, who have created a vital cinema renaissance since the 1970s.