Café Reflections Christchurch Earthquake (Christchurch City 1975-2012) gives a moving and personal account of growing up, living and working in the Christchurch’s Central Business District (CBD) between 1975 and 2011, and shares the challenges that small business owners faced after being exiled from their livelihoods after the CBD was closed down by the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
In April 2007 Deb Donnell decided to visit the cafés in the centre of Christchurch and write during her lunch hours. Deb recorded her day to day experiences and interactions with people and businesses in the Central Business community, or used the locations as triggers to evoke memories from over the years. She continued doing this, as well as taking photographs of where she was writing, up until the time of the February 2011 earthquake. She wasn’t sure why until she emerged, dazed and frightened, from her parents’ High Street jewellery store, where she worked.
On seeing the devastation around her, she realised that everything she had written about was now becoming lost history.
Café Reflections: Christchurch City gives a moving and personal account of growing up, living and working in the Christchurch’s Central Business District (CBD) between 1975 and 2011, and shares the challenges that small business owners faced after being exiled from their livelihoods after the CBD was closed down by the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
“Unlike my usual practice which is to devour good books, I am savouring cafe reflections, enjoying each delicate and exquisite portion in a most genteel fashion.” Bev
“Love reading my copy of Cafe Reflections, it really is like following you around as you write, which is a style I like.” Sue
“Book arrived today and so far I’ve read the Epilogue, which brought a couple or 10 memory tears to my eyes! Blink, blink, read on!” Jill
“I loved the book! I loved the history you have brought up on cafes and buildings, very interesting for me! I also love the raw emotions of your writings of your feelings about the quake, must have been very hard for you to write this down.” Michelle
“Deb, I’ve devoured every word of your book. I realize I never truly understood your pain, and the ordeal you and NZ have endured.” Arne, USA
Deb’s personal story is intermingled with her family, friends and neighbours who made the CBD community a vibrant, lively place to be. She updates the reader with what has been happened during and after the earthquake, and the status of many well known businesses and buildings right up until the second anniversary of the 7.1 magnitude Canterbury Earthquake (4 September 2012).
“I’m one of those ‘out of towners’ who had never been to Christchurch prior to the EQ deployment. I only saw the deserted and shattered city. Not the vibrant, living CBD that it had been. Deb’s book has helped to place my own experiences in context.
Looking through the photos for Responders, I was to come across images of many of the cafes featuring in Café Reflections. Including one (Black Bettys) that I was the engineer escort for, when this building was stickered. Many have been demolished. Some have reopened elsewhere. A few are still on their original sites.
Deb’s style of writing is very down to earth and conversational, but also very personal. Café Reflections is not a café review book. It’s a personal story of life in the central city. Deb describes how that life was torn apart on Feb 22 2011, and some of the steps that have been made towards recovery since then. I very much recommend it.”
Pete Seager, NZRT16 Tauranga
“This is not merely a book of cafe reviews, it also tells the vivid and painful story of what it was like to be in town on 22 February 2011. It is a tale of before and after. Deb counterpoints pre- and post-quake situations. The book is full of personal memories, images and anecdotes. Its great strength is her knowledge of the central city and its people, businesses and buildings.”
Christchurch City Libraries
Christchurch is New Zealand’s second largest city and has been struggling to operate without a CBD since most of its buildings were severely damaged by the 6.3 magnitude earthquake. Over 80% of the buildings have been added to the demolition list and Christchurch is facing a virtually clean slate on which to rebuild the CBD. The February 2011 earthquake was just one is a sequence of massive earthquakes which began on 4 September 2010. 185 people lost their lives on 22 February 2011 and thousands were injured.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Release Date: 29 October 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9582780-1-0
Retail Price: $45.00
Size: Paperback A5 Portrait (148 x 210 mm)
Pages: 272 pages (275 full colour photographs and 47,000 words)
