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Who is Nikki D.? The nude poster child of capital-P Photography. A Lolita, perhaps, finally letting the predators off the hook. Or the teller of her own story, albeit under a new name: Christina Cross—the name she adopted when she flew across the world to start a new life in London. It isn’t until her past follows her there, decades later, that Christina finally decides to tell her story—or, at least, to give a trusted penman the permission to faithfully transcribe the truth of her much-observed childhood. To capture those endless summers at the Silverbanks nudist colony in Golden Bay, New Zealand: the sunlit beaches, her first romantic encounters, the for-ever friendships that only some unknown darkness could put to the test. And then there’s Roland Salt—the world-class photographer who chased the summer around the globe, carrying little more than his camera and his unmatched ability to capture innocence: Nicola Davidson, or Nicky, better known, in print, as Nikki D.
Carl Nixon’s latest novel sensitively but provocatively puts legitimized forms of exploitation under the microscope. Photographers of children. Talent scouts. Ghost writers of the stories of the victims of abuse. Can the real story be disentangled from the elaborations?
“Nixon’s prose is arresting … which generates consistent appeal for the thrilling and emotionally nuanced story. This is electrifying.” —Publishers Weekly, *starred review*
“From its first sentences, The Tally Stick by Carl Nixon swept me up and carried me away to a world I never knew and a place I’ve never been: New Zealand’s West Coast, a rough and rugged place where after just five days in the country the Chamberlain family completely disappears. But more than the impeccably described landscape, it’s the complicated moral choices the characters must confront that makes this novel so much more than a gripping story of loss and survival. Richly drawn, intensely atmospheric, and absolutely stunning, I loved this book!” —KAREN DIONNE, author of the #1 international bestseller The Marsh King’s Daughter and The Wicked Sister
“Nixon’s evocation of physical landscape and its interior counterpart resonate long in the memory.” —The Times
“An atmospheric thriller, this is the Kiwi version of outback noir and I couldn’t put it down.”—The Observer
“There’s a steady relentlessness to the action in the bent fairy tale of Carl Nixon’s fourth novel … Nixon sketches in aspects of his characters’ lives deftly.” —Newsroom (New Zealand)
“Carl Nixon is one of my favorite New Zealand writers. I love his stuff … This latest novel is very cinematic … I would place it firmly amongst what’s called a literature of unease … very ominous, very foreboding, it’s all about the atmosphere … The prose also does a really interesting thing with time, in that it lingers over instances … The writing is very powerful.” —Radio New Zealand
“A mesmerising mystery that clings long in the memory.” —Independent.ie