Oracles and Miracles and Zombies — Stevan Eldred-Grigg

We all know about the zombie pandemic that ravaged New Zealand between the two world wars, but little has been written about how the zombie virus affected the lives of women, especially working class women. Stevan Eldred-Grigg's best selling novel about twin sisters growing up during the depression has been updated by Helen Mae Innes to include the previously ignored and despised minority, zombies.A black comedy, the story shows us how the sisters, their sharp and shrewd mother and many other women struggle to avoid being bitten by biters, care gingerly for hunches who don't want to eat their brains (yet) and watch as the 'cured' lurkers start to take their jobs. Even in times of pandemics girls still grow up, worry about boys, go out to work, get married and have babies, all while trying to keep their brains safe inside their skulls. At the beginning the twins are small, fearful and helpless. By the end of the story they're armed and ready to go after the enemy.But who is the real enemy?A novel about survival in extraordinary times, Oracles and Miracles and Zombies is an inspiration to women of all generations.