Tarzan Presley

Around 1935, in the bush of the Wairarapa, a boy grows up among a band of gorillas, in a world of forest and giant weta drawn in close, realistic detail. Music finds its way to him, and so does a young American scientist hunting for giant cave weta. Once he is discovered he is brought to America and raised as one of the Presleys, and under the Memphis record producer Sam Phillips he becomes a star. From there his life follows the path of Elvis Presley's: enormous fame, the damage it does, and the drug-dependent years in Las Vegas. In the book's last part he considers the mistakes that brought him to that point and sets out to build a life of his own beyond his fame.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Set in

New Zealand, United States

First published

2004

Author's age

53 when first published

ISBN

9780864734808 (Victoria University Press, New Zealand)