Here’s a description much better than the incomprehensible one in the linked article:

In my previous Novel, The Purple Runner, in the very late 1970s a mysterious talented American runner with a disfigured face is seen bolting over the Hampstead Heath north of London, England. At story’s end, the Runner (never identified) wins the Greater London Marathon. For the first time in history the time for the 26.2-mile distance is under two hours. Yet on completing the course, he continues running, disappearing into the many streets and avenues of London. Many have wondered what has become of him.

Fast forward perhaps 13 years to 1993 and the unfolding story in this sequel novel, Pedals of Gold. Now over 40, Coos Charletaigne (his adopted pseudonym), has had reconstructive surgery on his face in California, then discovers new residence in an abandoned mine in the mountains above Boulder, Colorado.

Although still maintaining a high level of fitness, Coos disguises his current ability and former competitive history while riding with an international array of 40-plus-year-old cyclists, all of whom have talented and accomplished backgrounds.

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When I was still in NZ I knew the author of this article, Nalani Singh, only as “that Kiwi who wrote all those angel books that never circulate” - so I found it kind of weird (but good!) to see Madness of Sunshine become a hotly anticipated release with 60-person wait lists here in the Midwestern US.

I wish this article was a little less self-promotional on her part - who are those other Kiwi writers who sat in a cafe with her and discussed the possibility of an NZ Noir genre? What about other books that could be in this budding genre, like Michael Bennett’s Better the Blood, or the majority of Paul Cleave’s bibliography? A discussion for a later time, I suppose.

I assumed this was going to be one of the cases where they were found using statistical/Big Data analysis of a digital database - but no, this was achieved by manually combing through archives! I can’t believe how much work that must have been (and how many frustrating dead ends…). What dedication!

Shame that poetry left.

I’m quite happy with some of the selections, although most of my choices (Birnam Wood in fiction, Victory City in fantasy, Translation State in sci-fi) probably don’t have a hope of winning, the Goodreads userbase being what it is.

I’d probably just put “Ex libris (my name)”

But I’m fond of one from a medieval manuscript where a scribe added something like “if a person steals this manuscript, may he die the death”

Do you think the original language of the Bible is 17th-century English?