Read our independent reviews of the latest books from Aotearoa.
Pānuihia ā mātou arotakenga tūhake o ngā pukapuka hou nō Aotearoa.
'Migration has echoes of things I know: the word ‘ngāti’ attributed to different groups of people in the same way as we’d have the British class system, and ‘māma’ and ‘pāpā’ for mum and dad. The wānanga itself is a strict military training academy complete with the same squabbles and hierarchy you’d find in the dorms of many boarding schools...'
'Eleanor Preston – aka Nell – is born in 1897 on a South Island sheep farm homestead. During childhood, her world is the blue mystery of the hills, the sense of accomplishment of moving stock on horseback, of ice skating and cocoa – anything and everything is possible.'
'Fittingly, it's a narrative with books at the core. Getwin and her Mum work at stitching, stamping and clandestinely reading them. Lea and others slave at copying them. A nasty, entitled social elite schemes at restricting access to them...'
'Nustrini somehow manages to find new narrative ground thanks to a likable, laconic Kiwi perspective that turns it all into something interesting and entertaining rather than just another sortie through well-trodden territory....'
'Novel, autofiction, creative non-fiction or memoir, this work eludes the boundaries of conventional expectation and form. It's also a cracking story, displaying the fine novelistic impulse that has won Coventry literary awards.'
‘Jacqueline Leckie’s latest book Old Black Cloud: A cultural history of mental depression in Aotearoa New Zealand is a highly accessible, uniquely insightful, and in-depth exploration of mental depression as an intrinsic part of our national fabric…’
Vincent O’Sullivan’s literary career was long and glittering. Still Is has an added poignancy because so many of the poems would have been written with the poet knowing that his end was not far away. Given this however, there is no sense of doom in the work…
'In this book, Henwood has generously and bravely let us know more of the 'private Dai' behind the popular clown. For all that his outrageous comedy persona has brought him popularity and accolades over the years, this will probably make you like him even more. '
‘A tender and beautifully written story about learning to live again. The writing is gently humorous, while also tinged with a deep sense of loss… June 2024 release
‘There was a period of time, not that long ago, when no one in their right mind would take advice from DJ and TV personality Matt Heath…’
Max is about to finish high school. On the surface it appears he has everything, but underneath he is floundering. Grappling with questions about his birth parents and his sexuality, he feels that there is a seed of badness deep within him that will inevitably be exposed.
‘When a brilliant polymath like Harry Ricketts takes to memoir, you just know it is going to be something special…’
People in the district would often say Roy Mitchell was not quite the same after he come back from the war. There was a twin brother, Tony. Killed on Crete in 1941. The hut he built when he returned was on a bit of flat ground above the Mangawhero Creek. He called it his whare. Corrugated-iron chimney on the south wall.’
Distinctive, fresh and compellingly present, AUP New Poets 10 features three exciting new voices. Hebe Kearney gives Kete the lowdown on this three-chapbook collection.
‘Why are we so obsessed with the childbirth and child-rearing capabilities of others?’ Jackie Lee Morrison reviews the ‘beautiful and tragic and funny and compelling, not all easy to read,’ Otherhood.
Eighteen-year-old Grace has struggled all her life with her place in this family and in the world. Obviously of Asian descent, she has been unable to get the truth about her parentage from her mother, a woman who is struggling with her own demons, that date back to her life in Taiwan where she survived an earthquake while giving birth to Grace.
Marilynn Webb: Folded in the hills is a substantial bilingual publication to mark the monumental retrospective of Ngapuhi, Te Roroa and Ngati Kahu artist Marilynn Webb (NZOM) (1937-2021) at Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
Warmth, humour, and depth in a ‘quiet, kind book about a quiet, kind kid.’ A new mother-daughter review from 11 year-old Libby and (slightly older) Kirsteen.
Tidelines interweaves the poet's own life with the tragic story of Hinerangi, who lived at Karekare in the distant past. These are poems of Auckland's west coast, reflecting the steady rhythms of daily existence, alongside grief, mental unwellness, disintegration and resolution.
Two murders. Two decades apart. One chance to get justice. Hana Westerman has left Auckland and her career as a detective behind her. Settled in a quiet coastal town, all she wants is a fresh start…
“Over my lifetime I have given most things a crack when presented with the opportunity,” Susan Devoy writes in her funny and fascinating new biography, Dame Suzy D: My Story. From self-described ‘working-class girl’ to Dame, Race Relations Commissioner to reality TV star, unbeatable squash world number one to all-too-relatable mother of four…
Editors: Catherine Hammond, Shaun Higgins Reviewer: David Veart In 1848, two decades after a French inventor mixed daylight with a cocktail of chemicals to fix the view outside his window onto a metal plate, photography arrived in Aotearoa. How did these 'portraits in a machine' reveal Maori and Pakeha to themselves and to each other? Were the first photographs 'a good likeness' or were they tricksters? What stories do they capture of the changing landscape of Aotearoa?April 2024 release
‘Katūīvei: Contemporary Pasifika Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand is the latest in a decades-long line of anthologies of Pasifika poetry written in English. The title is a neologism created by editors David Eggleton, Vaughan Rapatahana and Mere Taito, referencing the Rotuman verb to navigate and the tūī, bird of two voiceboxes.’
‘Ash is a bruising portrait of what boils in the belly of a woman who is “coping”, revealed with humour and a rare candour.’
‘This substantial book of letters selected by esteemed Colin McCahon scholar Peter Simpson shines a light on one of the most remarkable relationships in New Zealand art. The painter Colin McCahon and the librarian Ron O'Reilly first met in 1938, in Dunedin, when McCahon was 19 and O'Reilly 24. They remained close, writing regularly to each other until 1981…’
'A deep dive into an area that affects all of us, if we’re lucky.' Catherine Milford reviews Evolving by journalist, news anchor, television presenter, and mother of the nation, Judy Bailey and finds solace in the book’s running thread ‘that getting older doesn’t have to mean becoming invisible.'
‘Intergenerational, diasporic story-telling that is polished and compelling. I consumed it greedily within a few days, much like the young queer character Annie consumes her grandmother’s delicious Sri Lankan cooking.’
“Take Two is light and sweet, but never cloying or sickly. Like getting the tea from your school bestie after you've been out of touch for a few years, accompanied by a slice of your favourite cake.”
This selection transcends its colonial origins literally in 'The Colonial Museum' creating a powerful narrative using the artefacts woven together with subtle curation and a strong Māori voice, a voice which doesn't simply murmur 'ghostly' echoes from the past but instead speaks truth powerfully into the present.
Strawhan's crime novel is cinematic, which comes as no surprise given his previous writing credits. The co-creator of Go Girls and Nothing Trivial, he also has form in the TV crime thriller genre, including Bad Mothers and This Is Not My Life. While The Call doesn't read like a screenplay, it could easily become one. The scenes are sharp, ending with an eye to the cut: a wry line and then a clean shift to a deserted beach, a flashback, or a suburban gang house.
“The format is intriguingly diverse: emails, texts, passages of verse are scattered throughout. An immediate, coming-at-ya present tense keeps the plot belting along. Dissanayake knows when to pause, to leave things for the reader...”
“Being entrusted with another person’s life, plunging your hands into their body cavities while they are in a sedated coma, takes a lot of nerve. A confident exterior belies the very human doctor underneath. This beautifully written memoir deftly paints human flesh and vulnerability onto those God-like creatures we see in scrubs and reminds us that medical professionals do bring their whole selves into each patient encounter.”
“I feel as though I stepped through a portal to glimpse the poverty and hardship experienced in an 1860s Taranaki settlement on the brink of the New Zealand Wars.”
“Auger keeps the central narrative thread squarely focused on reporting matches, with The Three Quicks subsequently aimed more at the patient test cricket purists over casual white ball enthusiasts with shorter attention spans. Heavily results and statistics-focused, it harks back to a time when cricket almanacs were poured over, and test cricket wasn't staring down the existential threats it now faces.”
If you're a fan of slow-burn, character-driven thrillers, you will have a great time with The Night She Fell. There may not be any Jack Reacher action sequences but you'll be on the edge of your seat as you reach the end.
This story has love and heart, and gorgeous descriptions of the little magical village make you feel like you're exploring the cobbled streets of Potamia alongside Jory. This is author Palmisano's own supernatural talent, bringing places to life. The delicious passages about food and baking where the language is stripped bare to its raw ingredients are also a treat.
When is a horse book not a horse book? When it’s a kelpie book, of course, of course. Kirsteen Ure and her daughter Libby (11) give an unbridled review of Rachael King’s new intermediate-age fantasy book, The Grimmelings.
This novel incorporates two main timelines, one set in the middle of the 20th century and the other set in 1989. The historical backdrop of war-era Bletchley Park and its remarkable team of codebreakers is fascinating. Author SL Beaumont spends sufficient time developing this setting. Similarly, the Cold War era and its aftermath provide rich material that expands throughout the book's second half.
This beautiful new collection by Patricia Grace is divided into three sections, each positioned from a different time or context. Fans of Patricia Grace will be immediately won over by this rich and immensely readable collection, writes Jade Kake.
“Within his story, Nazari pulls back to offer the bigger picture: the history of Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban, convoluted global politics, demonisation of migrants, this country’s generous treatment of refugees, Afghanistan today and the Christchurch mosque killings. But he sketches into his writing small yet telling incidents from that childhood of flight and fear.”
This sumptuous social and environmental history of Whakaraupō Lyttelton Harbour takes the reader around the harbour that separates Ōtautahi Christchurch from Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū Banks Peninsula.
‘Albrecht, who turns 80 this year, has had a consistently productive and successful career now stretching across six decades … a feast for eye and mind.’
‘Hoey is making our local literary landscape exciting again and there’s no better proof than this collection…’
‘When we are yet again debating the modern meaning of Te Tiriti, with questions on Māori representation on councils, co-governance and suggestions of a referendum on the future of our ‘founding document.’ Against all this Dame Anne Salmond’s latest book presents a more nuanced point of view …’ release
Priestley’s new memoir explores the complications of living in a world under threat across two parallel timelines. Her primary, present-tense narrative is a road trip down the South Island West Coast in the company of her lifelong friend Maz in the winter of 2021 – almost a whistlestop tour of various aspects of climate crisis … Interleaved with the weeklong road trip, in the past tense, are the experiences of teenaged Rebecca and Maz in the 1980s...’
‘Bodman makes us realise that rugby league has done well to survive, let alone thrive. The fact it is ensconced as a popular sport in this country is something of a miracle, given the efforts of rugby union over almost a century to stamp it out.’
‘An impressive debut … Kake paints her novel as much as pens it: there are colours and textures portrayed throughout, while shades of light, passages of penumbra also pervade the pages.’
‘For almost 50 years, ‘the Jaws effect’ has resulted in what psychologists have termed galeophobia — an irrational fear of sharks. Even though statistics show driving to the beach is far more likely to result in injury…’ Alex Eagles reviews this celebration of mangō and whai for young New Zealanders and joins the authors in encouraging others to admire these amazing animals.
‘Flora, Te Papa’s showcase of botanical art from its collections, is huge, sumptuous and gorgeous.’
‘His Favourite Graves deserves to win Paul Cleave many more fans; it’s another twisty, gory and disturbing outing (one of the characters suffers from a psychological condition which makes him think he is infested with parasites) and a reminder that Cleave was initially drawn to the horror genre but changed his mind after reading FBI profiler John Douglas’s Mindhunter.’
‘In less capable hands, adding Lovecraftian-type monsters to the grim horror of war might have turned the story into an unpalatable mess but Lee Murray plays these disparate elements beautifully against each other. The visceral and heart-wrenching elements of both serve to lift the narrative into the realms of a classical epic tale, echoing Herman Melville’s Moby Dick in its imagery, from which emerges a powerful work which left this reader devastated.’
‘Bird Life’s clipped sentences, taut and crisp, have a spare Japanese aesthetic, like haiku. There is delicate lyrical beauty, precise detail and stark contrasts, like the strange shack of the animal vendor on the roof of the luxury department store where Yasuko goes to find birds and beetles for her rituals.’
‘…a brilliantly researched and compelling look at one of our most significant unsolved cases, one that also gives readers a fascinating peek into our cultural and legal history.’
‘…this is a lively, readable, thought-provoking and occasionally funny account of the central and important subject matter: Art that doesn't just “raise questions” but frequently posits answers.’
‘Remember Me is full of poetry to read aloud and remember. For funerals, weddings, occasions, evenings at home etc... There’s long been a gap for this book and Auckland University Press has brought it to life.’
‘I would recommend this book to kids 9 - 13, and people who like dramatic fiction. You don’t have to particularly like history to enjoy it. I find history boring but the Children of the Rush series made me want to learn more. It was interesting, fun, dark and heartwarming.’
‘Given Robert never got round to writing the book about New Zealand and his life, Robert Lord Diaries fills the bill in ways that are sometimes tantalising, making this reader feel like a director or actor, seeking clarity and deeper truths in the subtext, and prompting further searches via the internet which Robert never got to experience. As such it is informative, evocative and curiously engaging.’
‘The latest book from bestselling natural history author Robert Vennell is a fantasy foray through the forests of Aotearoa, full of fascinating facts about fungi, lichens, liverworts, mosses and slithery slime moulds.’
‘Articulations is a collection of Bollinger’s essays, many of which were originally published in Salient as the column they established there, Token Cripple. It’s relatively short, 131 pages with 19 chapters spaciously typeset. Bollinger has said they hoped to make it small and light enough to take to a café to read. This is indeed what I did and recommend doing.’
‘Vintage Aviators evokes superlatives. Not just the subject matter but the whole physical object. It’s a beautiful amalgam of all that is best in modern photography, printing and bookbinding technology. ’
‘Dani Yourukova’s debut poetry collection Transposium has a striking cover: one that promises a fascinating book within. And the poetry definitely doesn’t disappoint; it takes Plato’s Symposium and brings it to life into modern form, incorporating concerns and problems from 2023 to make a playful, philosophical and thoughtful book.’
‘Hot on the heels of Francis Pound’s great book on Gordon Walters, Auckland University Press has published another superb art historical monograph, this time on Don Binney, a comparably significant figure in New Zealand art history, by writer and art historian Gregory O’Brien.’
‘Adrienne Jansen’s work is poignant. There is no getting away from the all too believable grief and we feel much sympathy for the plights of all our four. With an extensive and detailed narrative, it is easy to be drawn in.’
‘Originally from the United States, Vyas’ composes a work in which an instance of traumatic personal loss acts as a starting point to poetically examine and dismantle the private and public impacts of British colonialism, American imperialism, patriarchy and caste hierarchies. The result is a politically charged meditation upon the world we live in and the world we might bequeath to those who come after us..’
‘Untouchable Girls is a rollicking, intimate, uproarious romp through the triumphant lives of Jools and Lynda that will make you want to sing, to go on the road, ride horses, fall in love and never stop laughing.’
‘The devastating results of climate change are clear and obvious - but how does a writer, let alone a writer slash activist, fashion a compelling thriller from the subject?’
‘I enjoyed reading this slim volume. Why? Not just because the plot momentum and machination transported me swiftly through the pages, augmented as they are by much of the script being written in unrhyming free verse, but because Nelson writes well, scribes skilfully. The book is easy to explore.’
‘The World I Found is Wellington author Latika Vasil’s first YA novel, and she’s included a lot of her local landscape here. She’s had a number of short stories published, and I look forward to seeing her fiction repertoire grow and develop.’
Paku Manu Ariki Whakatakapōkai is philosophical, smart, wry and highly recommended.
‘Little Doomsdays, whatever it is, is a tour-de-force of the power of art to capture and express complex, heavy ideas and spark deep contemplation and conversation.’
‘This huge (464 pages), dense, richly illustrated book tells you everything you could possibly want to know about the great New Zealand abstract painter Gordon Walters (1919-95). Art lovers, students and specialists will relish the almost obsessive degree of attention to every detail about Walters’ work.’
‘Moving with a relentless and increasing sense of foreboding, Nicholas Sheppard’s How To Disappear Completely is an extensive diagnosis of a disturbing disorder in recent American life. It is not a novel where the ends are neatly tied – instead it opens a social and psychological world to exploration.’
‘Why don't I read more poetry? Partly it's narrow-mindedness. I don't write poetry, so it's not my first choice to read. Laziness also features, I don't focus enough; I read extensively rather than intensively. I find the linear movement of fiction and most non-fiction easier. I miss out by not reading more poets. These two new selections from Roger Hickin's Cold Hub Press – and all hail to that faithful servant / practitioner – prove the point.’
‘Rewi navigates a variety of wonderful easy-to-read mediums which positions itself as a fun book with colours, pictures, drawings, texts and interviews that aim at collating the voices of some of the industry’s leading professionals and academics. The book draws the reader in, like the design of an interesting house or an abstract painting.’
Nā Paula Morris i ētita me Darryn Joseph. Nā Mikaia Leach I arotake. ‘Ko tā Hiwa he pōhiri i te kaipānui ki te ao o ngā kaituhi (Māori) tautōhito, tautata hoki.’ ’Hiwa beckons the reader to the world of both known and new Māori writers.’
Tā Pou Temara. Nā Maumahara Horsfall i arotake. ‘He tirohanga onamata ki te wā i ō tātau tīpuna me te rerekē rawa atu o te ao i nohoia e rātau.’ ‘a window to the past, to the time of our ancestors and the very different world that they lived in.’
Nā Te Haumihiata Mason i whakamāori. Nā Racheal McGarvey i arotake. ‘Ko te paki mō te aroha aukati me ngā whānau hoariri nō mai iho, engari ko te whakapuaki me te whakaahua i te wairua o tēnei whakaari ki te reo Māori ki tōna tino taumata e e titikaha ai ki te ngākau tangata, he tino ekenga tēra.’‘… to articulate and illustrate the messages of this play in te reo Māori in a way that, in my opinion, resonates with te ao Māori is a feat.’
Kaituhi: Dr Emma Espiner. Nā Hineko Kingi i arotake.‘Mā te wairua whakakatakata o Espiner e kaingākautia ai te kōrero nei …’‘Espiner's dark humour keeps it interesting…’
The Artist nā Ruby Solly. Nā Robert Sullivan i arotake.He takinga kōrero mā te toikupu mō ngā iwi whakahirahira o Te Tonga 'and ways of knowing grounded in whakapapa'.An account in poems of our great Southern iwi 'and ways of knowing grounded in whakapapa'.
Kaituhi: Carl Hayman; Dylan Cleaver. Nā Michael Burgess i arotake.‘Kāore a Hayman e pupuri, engari kē ia ka tuku ia i tana katoa.’’Hayman spares nothing and gives everything.’
Kaituhi: Monty Soutar. Nā Dan Rabarts i arotake.‘I ētahi wā he whanokē ngā kōrero pono i ngā kōrero paki, ā, he pērā rawa ngā kōrero a Tākuta Monty Soutar i roto i tana pakimaero tuatahi e whakaatu ana he whakatumatuma, he taumaha ake pea te hītori i te pakiwaitara.’‘…Dr Monty Soutar has demonstrated in this impressive first novel that history, likewise, can be more confronting, and more challenging, than fiction.’
Kaituhi: David Riley. Nā Milo Lilo Morrison i arotake.‘Ka whakaatu tēnei pukapuka i te manawatītī, te aumangea, te kaha me te māia.’ ‘This book was an amazing way of showing determination, resilience, strength and bravery.’
Author: Emily King. Reviewer: Lauraine Jacobs.‘… nothing could be as good as this book being required reading for every thinking person and, of course, for elected officials of government, both local and national.’June 2023 release
Author: Suzanne Frankham. Reviewer: David Gadd.Engaging characters and a puzzle that gets murkier the deeper police dig make this tightly written murder mystery just what you want in crime fiction - a story told so well that you want to keep reading it in one go.May 2023 release
“One of the most profoundly bisexual pukapuka I’ve ever read. An immersive sense of ‘both/and’ permeates the whole work: Māori and Pākehā, land and sea, she and they.”
Author: Airana Ngarewa. Reviewer: Jack Remiel Cottrell. The Bone Tree is an exquisitely written book, the story of two boys – Kauri and Black – and the depth of secrets that have been hidden from them their entire lives. August 2023 release
Author: Denis Welch. Reviewer: David Herkt.In We Need to Talk About Norman: New Zealand’s Lost Leader, Denis Welch focuses on the New Zealand Labour Party Prime Minister, Norman Kirk, who died in office in 1975. He ventures into this relatively recent history and finds new importance. In Welch’s version, Kirk is a gauge for our age.June 2023 release
Author: Charlotte Lobb. Reviewer: Dionne Christian. Author Charlotte Lobb has been open about writing Hannah & Huia to highlight mental health topics and to provide hope for those in need. To succeed, one needs a strong story that resonates with readers and, for me, there must be hope alongside the heartbreak. Hannah & Huia more than hits the mark. July 2023 release
Author: Jared Davidson. Reviewer: David Veart. This powerful book describes yet another hidden layer in the history of these islands, a place where imprisonment, labour, punishment, class and ethnicity all combine to create a narrative at odds with any imagined story of sturdy pioneers and well earned progress. Blood & Dirt: Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand is recommended reading in a time where the urge to imprison and punish remains strong undeterred by the failure of the system to do anything but that. August 2023 release
Author: Shaneel Lal. Reviewer: Demi Cox.‘For me, there are not enough words to describe just how stunning One of Them really is.’July 2023 release
Author: Thomasin Sleigh. Reviewer: Dionne Christian.The Words For Her is one of the most inventive, provocative and layered novels released this year. In the world Thomasin Sleigh carefully constructs, she builds on uncertainties and ideas to pose successive new and tricky considerations. June 2023 release
Author: Emily Perkins. Reviewer: Josie Shapiro.The fifth novel by Emily Perkins, Lioness showcases her skill, charged by a crisp, steady voice punctuated with powerful insight which lures readers into a beguiling tale of a woman unravelling. July 2023 release
Author: Andrew Paul Wood. Reviewer: Graham Reid. Shadow Worlds: A history of the occult and esoteric in New Zealand is a fascinating, readable book – if complex, have pencil handy - which illuminates numerous subcultures and belief systems which often found sizeable audiences here. July 2023 release
Author: Emma Espiner. Reviewer: Elizabeth Heritage.There’s a cure for this is Dr Emma Espiner’s pukapuka about entering the hothouse world of medical studies as an adult, beginning in 2015. May 2023 release
Author: Blair McMillan. Reviewer: Anne Ingram. There are difficult themes in Here Upon the Tide – refugees and their need for a safe home, the loss of a parent, depression and mental health. These matters impact the characters deeply but never weigh the book down. Blair McMillan has explored each theme with understanding and compassion… June 2023 release
Author: Alison Ballance. Reviewer: Alex Eagles. ‘Like the birds, Takahē: Bird of Dreams is colourful and heavy-duty; its glossy pages filled with fascinating information and beautiful photos…’ June 2023 release
Author: Catherine Chidgey. Reviewer: Dionne Christian. ‘Catherine Chidgey is causing confusion. Unity Books explains via social media post that when people asking for Chidgey’s new book, they have to clarify whether they want The Axeman’s Carnival, winner of the 2023 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, or Chidgey’s actual newest book, Pet… both are a testament to Chidgey’s virtuoso talent …’ June 2023 release
Author: Kayleen M Hazlehurst. Reviewer: David Hill.Kayleen Hazlehurst brings to us a powerful new wartime novel set in Aotearoa/ New Zealand during World War II. Who Disturbs the Kūkupa? is a sweeping tale of courage, love and awakening during one of the world’s darkest moments in history. June 2023 release
Author: Guyon Espiner. Reviewer: Michael Burgess. Of all the books that will be published in New Zealand in 2023, it’s hard to imagine there will be many more important than The Drinking Game. It’s a gem; thought provoking, startling, persuasive and entertaining, exploring how the way we drink has been shaped by factors far beyond any individual's control. February 2023 release
Author: Jean Donaldson. Reviewer: Alex Eagles.This book is a shout-out to the weird and wonderful endangered species in Aotearoa, those lesser-known creatures that don’t regularly make the news. But they are just as important as the ‘stars’ like kākāpō and kiwi, for they are the foundation of our unique biodiversity.November 2022 release
Bill Nagelkerke has a knack for using creative perspectives and the paranormal as a recurring theme in his work. Both are used well in The Ghost House.
My American Chair, Elizabeth Smither’s newest collection, contains the words of a seasoned poet interrogating humanity, her encounters and friendships and observing with great acuity the small oddities that exist in the world.
Author: Lynley Hargreaves. Reviewer: Alison Ballance. Written by Lynley Hargreaves, Vanishing Ice: Stories of New Zealand’s Glaciers tells the stories of our glaciers through the lens of human interaction, with chapters moving through time from first Māori discoverers to colonial explorers, mountaineers and modern glaciologists. November 2022 release
An expertly told ghost story is a thing to behold, and James Norcliffe has done an exceptional job of reeling his readers in and paying out the line with his latest book, The Crate.
Author: John Evan Harris. Reviewer: Cullen Wilson.The Physician’s Gun is more than an action-packed western. It has grit, wild spirit and a uniquely compelling story ripped out of Aotearoa’s colonial past. October 2022 release
Secrets of the Sea is the evocative title of ecologist and natural history writer Robert Vennell's new book and a very apt description of our oceans. With an astonishing 80 per cent still unexplored and 70 per cent of species yet to be classified, the Earth's seas are full of mystery.
There’s nothing like Dame - and this Dame is exceptional! What a delight to discover Gaylene Preston can tell stories on paper just as effectively as on film.
Simon Gault: No half measures is an unflinching look at success, failure - and fixing things fast.
Tauhou is an inventive exploration of Indigenous families, womanhood, and alternate post-colonial realities by a writer of Māori and Coast Salish descent.
Author: Paul Cleave. Reviewer: Greg Fleming.So far, 2022 has been a year rich for locally penned thrillers. Just in time for Christmas comes Paul Cleave’s The Pain Tourist to add to that list. November 2022 release
Making Space is an impressive recent release billed by its publisher Massey University Press as ‘a new book that sets the architectural record straight.’
Te reo translation.
Linked through recurring characters and themes, the haunting stories in Kōhine hurtle us into the streets of Tokyo and small-town New Zealand. The secular city of salarymen, sex workers and schoolgirls is juxtaposed with rongoā healers, lone men and rural matriarchs of Aotearoa.
In Tarquin the Honest, his first novel for adults, award-winning YA author Gareth Ward has delivered a quick-witted, fantastical tale packed with magic, action, and a cast of memorable characters.
Editors: Arcia Tecun, Lana Lopesi and Anisha Sankar. Reviewer: Ruth Smith.A search for new ways to talk about race in Aotearoa New Zealand brings together a powerful group of scholars, writers and activists in Towards a Grammar of Race in Aotearoa New Zealand.September 2022 release
David Howard’s latest substantial collection, Rāwhao: The Completed Poems, sees him pull together 150 poems wide-ranging in topic that span 1975 to today.
Author: Dr Hine Elder. Reviewer: Siena Yates.In Wawata: Moon Dreaming, Dr Hinemoa Elder, author of Aroha, New Zealand's top-selling non-fiction title of 2021, shows us how to reclaim intimacy with others, with ourselves, and with our planet using the energies of Hina, the Maori moon.October 2022 release
Scott Bainbridge’s latest true-crime offering centres around one Robert Gardner - a used car salesman, born in London, whose offending reached to all corners of the globe.
The Axeman's Carnival is Catherine Chidgey at her finest - comic, profound, poetic and true.
It's almost inevitable that the biography of a committed writer becomes a narrative of desk, bent head, queue of titles. It happens here sometimes but Hickin quickens the story with his sympathy, nicely judged balance of life and literature, and his own anecdotal skills.
Roll & Break is a collection full of surprises, and a celebration of the beaches at the heart of our Aotearoa life.
In The Doctor’s Wife, Fiona Sussman builds a world of restrained mannerisms with behaviour set to implode, where the new anxious energy abounds.
Renoir’s Bicycle: A collection of prose poems confirms Michael Harlow’s reputation as a playful and profound poet/storyteller.
Peninsula achieves that incredible thing that great storytelling can do – it creates myth and art about a place and a time, creating layers in our reality, giving it murkier and more meaningful depths.
Author: Nick Ascroft. Reviewer: Erica Stretton.Nick Ascroft’s fifth collection may be his most personal yet, with a sweetness that stings us repeatedly. The Stupefying is not to be missed. September 2022 release
Author: Izzy Lomax-Sawyers. Reviewer: Mollie Chater.In Vital Signs, Izzy Lomax-Sawyers provides an insight into what it's like to be a first-year junior doctor - the ups and downs, the drama, and how terrifying it is to finally be making decisions.September 2022 release
Author: Tom Baragwanath. Reviewer: Greg Fleming.An acutely observed portrait of a community, Paper Cage is the prize-winning debut from young New Zealand novelist Tom Baragwanath.August 2022 release
Author: Christopher Finlayson. Reviewer: David Herkt.Yes, Minister is an insider’s account of life in the John Key government and reveals what Key was really like as prime minister: utterly effective and utterly ruthless when needed.August 2022 release
Author: Frankie McMillan. Reviewer: Erica Stretton. In the small stories of The Wandering Nature of Us Girls, Frankie McMillan balances transgression and wit, showing a cast of unmoored characters with her signature warmth and compassion. August 2022 release
Author: Nick Bollinger. Reviewer: Graham Reid. In 400 engrossing pages, Nick Bollinger pulls art, music, theatre and the street press into this excellent, entertaining and important book. August 2022 release
Poor People With Money is a breathless, desperate sort of ride with brutality and grit but also deep undercurrents of beauty.
Return to Harikoa Bay features 33 stories in around 300 pages, each with an intricacy that makes it hard to believe they’re standalone works.
Life in the Shallows is one of those immensely rewarding books where almost every page turns up a fascinating fact.
Naming the Beasts is a menagerie of poems about the gnarlier aspects of being a creature of this world.
Kidnap At Mystery Island, winner of the 2021 Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award, is the action-packed junior novel just released by Scholastic.
Author: Kate Camp. Reviewer: Linda Herrick. In these true stories, Kate Camp moves back and forth through the smoke-filled rooms of her life: from a nostalgic childhood of the 1970s and 80s, through the boozy pothead years of the 90s, and into the sobering reality of a world in which Hillary Clinton did not win.July 2022 release
Author: Jennifer Ashton. Reviewer: Dionne Christian.Thief, Convict, Pirate, Wife: The Many Histories of Charlotte Badger is historian Jennifer Ashton’s determined attempt to unravel the true story behind a fantastical myth.July 2022 release
Simon Lendrum’s The Slow Roll is a brilliantly written and intriguing debut crime novel, set in Auckland and featuring two lead characters with intelligence and empathy who just leave you wanting more to read.
Ideals Are Like Stars is the remarkable true story of Yvette Williams, a trailblazing young athlete who defied the odds to win gold in the long jump at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 and became the first New Zealand woman to win an Olympic gold medal, a feat not repeated for 40 years.
Historical fiction writer Cristina Sanders is in her element regaling us with these imaginative tales. For adults and young adults alike, Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant is superb and poignant reading.
Full of pluck, courage and resourcefulness, Solo is for all those who long to wade through emerald rivers and breathe the mountain air.
Author: Laurence Fearnley. Reviewer: David Hill. As always, Laurence Fearnley's prose is precise, spare, springy with cadences of colloquial Kiwispeak, yet resonant with imagery. She's a quiet writer, never showy, building her moods and participants unobtrusively, steadily. May 2022 release
A compelling and 'deceptively delicate-looking pukapuka containing a reaching vastness.'
A horrifying twist early on turns this book into a taut domestic thriller … Slow Down You’re Here is smart, of and about Aotearoa here and now, and provocative in its politics and more personal concerns.
Author: Robert Sullivan Reviewer: David Eggleton.Robert Sullivan's poems navigate by portents, and by the stars, to thrill and inspire us. April 2022 release
Michael Steven’s Night School reads like a nostalgic time-travelling acid-soaked road-trip, formed of fragments of clarity that stab sharply out of the haze of the years between hits.
Author: Janet Charman. Reviewer: Siobhan Harvey. Crafted, woven with feminist ideology and navigating the intersections of memory, gender and politics, Janet Charman’s The Pistils is an accomplished work. March 2022 release
Nature Boy: The Photography of Olaf Petersen probably stands as one of the most thorough and comprehensive monographs on a New Zealand photographer and one hopes it will inspire similar studies of the numerous photographic artist who have helped to forge our visual heritage.
Chris Long’s memoir, The Boy From Gorge River, is a boy’s own adventure yarn that will appeal to teenage boys and armchair adventurers of all ages.
Raiment seduces us with its historical reenactments and leaves us eager to read the next instalment of a life bravely lived by a woman who, in the poetic adage of the time, took the path less followed.
Ruth Shaw’s resilience, optimism and willingness to always help others is to be admired; her remarkable story, told in The Bookseller at the End of the World, is to be read and reflected upon as it adds another vital perspective to a New Zealand life.
Meat Lovers, Rebecca Hawkes’s debut full-length collection, is a triumphant display of the power of words.
Kurangaituku is brilliantly written. Clever. Precise. Prosaic but not cluttered. It expects you to be an intelligent consumer of words and images.
Many new buildings have arisen from the rubble of post-earthquake Christchurch but none, perhaps, is as remarkable as Ravenscar House in the heart of the city’s heritage precinct. Sally Blundell’s well-written Ravenscar House: A biography tells the story of this unique development.
So far, for now: On journeys, widowhood and stories that are never over is a beautiful, must-read memoir from one of Aotearoa’s most treasured writers and activists, Dame Fiona Kidman.
The Shadow Broker is a solid, compelling thriller that touches on topical issues like state surveillance, post-Trump politics and corruption in the halls of power.
No breakdown of the contents in Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2022 prepares you for the thought, beauty and disruption within the pages.
Reading Mary's Boy, Jean-Jacques and other stories is the literary equivalent of realising everyone around you has the same rich, complex internal life as you do.
Suspend disbelief for much of the story and you'll find an author whose name you'll want to remember.
A compilation of work from a number of independent publications by Peter Hooper, as well as previously unpublished or uncollected work, Rejoice Instead is a beautiful, worthy and none-too-late publication, recording a solitary life lived with honourable dedication to the pursuit of poem-crafting.
Nor’ East Swell is a tale full of heart, family and surfing and a great read for teens and adults.
How you respond to The Fish may depend on whether or not you love the bold and experimental stylistic choices…
Well-edited, well-produced and excellent value for money, this companion catalogue to the major Rita Angus show at Te Papa is also an excellent introduction to the artist and her work.
The Surgeon’s Brain is not only a narrative - albeit one shattered and shivered to a purpose - it is also gathering of bright human sensations and thoughts.
Dan Salmon’s Neands 2 is a perfect fit for young adults who enjoy dystopian science fiction stories and will immerse readers in the world of a virus that causes exaggerated de-evolution.
.Douglas Lloyd Jenkins’ debut novel Shelter is an engaging tale of gay love, won and lost, amid Auckland’s changing skyline; the wonder is that it succeeds on both counts.
Spark Hunter is an original, fresh fantasy novel for young readers, lovingly crafted from author Sonya Wilson’s memories of a childhood spent roaming Fiordland.
Readers of James Norcliffe’s The Frog Prince are surrounded by layers of symbolic meaning, aided by the dark woods and dark paths of now and of yore, reminiscent of gingerbread houses, witches and bad deeds.
Hauraki Broo, a new children's book by award-winning illustrator/author Nikki Slade Robinson, is full of wonderful images and information that will delight whale and nature enthusiasts of all ages.
Matt McEvoy’s 30 Queer Lives has the avowed ambition of telling stories that “challenge stereotypes and offer courage and hope.”
Whai is Nicole Titihuia Hawkins’ debut collection from a new press in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, We Are Babies, which is off to an impressive start with a place on the longlist of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards’ poetry category.
I hope that Wai Pasifika will help ignite a change in policymakers’ thinking towards a more holistic, long-term, sustainable and resilient way of living.
Kia Kaha celebrates 100 individuals whose journeys can be shared with our tamariki — in a small but significant way we are changing the way we as a nation remember our heroes.
Seabirds are some of the most amazing animals on the planet yet many of us are unaware of their remarkable life stories and the fact that they are the most threatened group of birds in the world.
For too long, we were taught that any type of confidence and self-hype was narcissistic and unbecoming. Nuku is filled with women lauding their indigeneity, their strength and their gifts, and telling others that it’s okay to do the same.
Ray Ching New Zealand bird paintings is one for anyone with an affection for birds or art.
Strange times call for strange fiction and in Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy Volume III we can redefine beauty, find moa in the wild and investigate the worlds of the dead.
I grew up in Northland and carry the summer sun, the tropical dumps of rain, the coastal beauty in my bones. Kerikeri is a vital landmark in my memory banks, so it is with delight I read Ngā Ripo Wai: Swirling Waters, an anthology linked to the area.
If you’re hoping for a short read before a good night’s sleep, I cannot recommend Voice of World War II: New Zealanders Share Their Stories because once you open it, it will be hours before you can close it. Whether you choose to just dip into it or start a continuous read, it will captivate you.
Landfall 242 is the perfect arrival for summer reading with its inclusion of poetry, prose, essays, reviews and artwork.
Aljce in Therapy Land is a reimagining of Alice in Wonderland but for adults which feels dreamlike both in its sense of unreality – or heightened reality – and in that nightmarish feeling that something bad is happening and you can’t stop it.
Environmental artists Martin Hill and Philippa Jones serve up a visual feast in Fine Line with 260 glossy pages documenting a series of ephemeral sculptures placed in stunningly beautiful locations around the globe.
In this deft memoir The Forgotten Coast, Richard Shaw unpacks a generations-old family story he was never told: that his ancestors once farmed land in Taranaki which had been confiscated from its owners and sold to his great-grandfather, who had been with the Armed Constabulary when it invaded Parihaka on 5 November 1881.
Moving seamlessly between different times and places, and with its intertwining of mythology, psychology, philosophy, ecology and environmental concerns, The Time Lizard’s Archaeologist explores the psyche of the modern world.
At first glance, the photo captures a typical day out at the rugby in the 1980s as fans mingle in the sun outside Eden Park before a game...
Too Much Money is probably this country’s most insightful, well-researched, clearly written treatise on Aotearoa’s wealth divide to date.
Island Notes: Finding my place on Aotea Great Barrier Island is a loosely chronological narrative which also turns in unexpected directions and folds back on itself, dipping into scenes and moments, giving the sense of flipping through a box of photographs.
“Wow, what a beautiful behemoth of a book!” writes reviewer Alison Ballance of the moment when Above the treeline – a nature guide to alpine New Zealand landed on her doorstep with a thump.
With its show-stopping cover and title, Saffron Swirls and Cardamom Dust is a beautiful production. The pages are filled with glorious photos that are colourful and clear and certainly lead to a desire for the reader to indulge in the sugar and spice of cakes and many sweet things.
Works of fiction have the power to make us reconsider our own worlds. The Uprising: The Mapmakers in Cruxcia is one of those books.
Such reminders of the materiality and historicity of the paintings as objects adds another dimension to the psychological, aesthetic and historical connotations of the portraits themselves…
Across the Pass is a most satisfying book that will provide inspiration to wannabe and long-time trampers alike. It is like having the most erudite outdoor companion in your home and will offer solace for those.
This is a collection of poetry that will echo and nourish as we move through uncertain days.
A blend of science and speculative fiction makes this debut novella a unique and captivating read.
Te Kupenga: 101 Stories of Aotearoa from the Turnbull will provide precious education for New Zealanders because history is not simply about recalling events, figures and dates but about using what we know to understand our current standings and truths.
Something strange is happening in Seabrook. The town's lighthouse – dormant for more than 30y years and famously haunted – has inexplicably started shining, and its mysterious glow is sparking feverish gossip throughout the spooked community.
The Sea Walks into a Walk shows Anne Kennedy continually adroit with form, few of the poems repeating the same pattern or arrangement on the page. There are poems in couplets (long and short); poems with enormously extended, prosy lines; mantralike poems hammering a phrase...
Mary-anne Scott is close to taking Aotearoa’s crown for best-written young men with this, her fifth book for young adults. The Tomo —named for the naturally-occurring holes in volcanic land—is set at a farm near Gisborne, where Phil has been sent by his family to work for a couple of weeks during Christmas while his mum takes his dad to Wellington for cancer treatment.
Nicola McCloy and Jane King capture buildings which were lived, loved, worked and died in, not stuffy museum-pieces or forgotten ruins. Through these seemingly prosaic buildings we can connect with a heritage which goes beyond the grand and lauded and tells the engrossing stories of ordinary Kiwis.
Lucy Corry’s Homecooked is everything I want and admire in a cookbook: fresh ideas, simple food, seasonality, honesty and a wealth of easily accessed or grown New Zealand ingredients. Most importantly, it’s filled with lovely writing that’s expressed with clarity and is often very funny.