Out of It

Michael O’Leary’s Out of It was first published in 1987. Since then it has become a New Zealand cult classic and is possibly the only New Zealand literary cricket novel published here. The novel conjures a surreal cricket game between New Zealand and an invitation Out of It XI at Eden Park, Auckland, in dadaist and modernist prose in the Irish-Maori tradition. This new 25th anniversary collector’s edition, edited by cricket poetry anthologist and poet Mark Pirie, adds amendments to the first edition along with appendices, including a full scorecard of the Out of It innings, notes, an interview with the author and a bibliography of New Zealand cricket fiction and poetry. 25 years on, Out of It, as Pirie writes in the foreword, ‘remains a highly imaginative, original and colourful read.’ ‘If there has ever been a stranger book on cricket, I’ve yet to see it...not unlike one of the earliest Dadaist offerings...If you find a copy you will have something unique...’ - Journal of the Cricket Society