This is a fabulous collection of stories from a young and new Maori writer. She finds cosmopolitan material for her stories from the length and breadth of New Zealand. Her words are gem-like observations of lives on the edge, and her characters are rich and varied: bikies, UFO enthusiasts, circus workers, tattoo artists, mail-order brides. To read Alice Tawhai's works is to see the occasional despair and the often-uplifting poetry of many lives, and many readers will be wiser for the experience.