''Dirty Work'' is a

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

author Nigel Cox. Cox's second

(after his debut, Waiting for Einstein), Dirty Work is set in

Wellington City Wellington City Council is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, ...

, New Zealand, in the mid-1980s. The book revolves around the lives of staff and guests in the

Happy World is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kenjirō Takeshita. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''Ultra Jump''. The manga was adapted into an original video animation by KSS with animation work done by Zexcs. Plot Takeshi Ōmura i ...

, a low-rent

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

, and the conflict between the

owner, Hendrick van Eesen ('Hendy'), and his newly hired shift manager, Gina Tully. The novel won the Bucklands Memorial Literary Prize shortly after its release, and was also optioned for film. In 2006, the book was re-published by

Victoria University Press Te Herenga Waka University Press or THWUP (formerly Victoria University Press) is the book publishing arm of Victoria University of Wellington, located in Wellington, New Zealand. As of 2022, the press had published around 800 books. History Vi ...

, based in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

Trivia

*A manuscript written by one of the book's main characters, entitled "Tarzan of the Apes", has a plotline closely resembling that of Cox's fourth novel, Tarzan Presley, published in 2002.

Bibliography

Nigel Cox, ''Dirty Work'', Victoria University Press: Wellington, NZ, 2006.

External links

Victoria University Press
Official publishers' website. 20th-century New Zealand novels 1987 novels Novels set in New Zealand Novels set in hotels Wellington in fiction {{1980s-novel-stub