There are few book launches more hotly anticipated than a new Nicky Hager work. This time Hager is not the author, but it is introduced by him, with the same publisher, and the same closely guarded leadup to publication. The book, we can now reveal, is by Margie Thomson, and its title is spare and … Read more
Crocodiles, gold bars, birds of prey… and boobs. Erin Harrington, an academic specialising in horror and film, reviews the much-hyped new novel by the man who gave us Dr Hannibal Lecter. Cari Mora is Thomas Harris’s first novel in 13 years, and the first since his 1975 debut Black Sunday that doesn’t feature his most … Read more
The only published and available bestselling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Toll by Luke Wright (Penned in the Margins, $32) “Part Essex wide boy, part dandy fop, he writes from the sidelines … Read more
New verse from Sydney-based poet Catherine Vidler. The weirdness of trees I love the weirdness of trees, but that’s not an opinion. In my opinion, shapes take the shape of things other than my opinion but inseparably from my opinion about the shapes themselves. Does that make sense? What is your opinion on the way … Read more
Last week, Dame Fiona Kidman won the 2019 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize for her eleventh novel. Her first, A Breed of Women, was published 40 years ago in 1979. Here, you can read the opening chapter. A Breed of Women is a frank portrayal of what it was like to be a woman in small-town New … Read more
Petition for superfreak Scarlett Cayford to judge the Women’s Prize for Fiction next year: she read her way through the entire 2019 longlist, for fun. Here are her reckons on the top six. Sally Rooney’s Normal People, which has been subject to unremitting praise, didn’t make the cut while Anna Burns’ Booker Prize-winning Milkman scored … Read more
The authorised biography of New Zealand’s longest-serving female MP was co-written by her former press secretary. Unsurprising, then, that it focuses on her triumphs, says longtime Labour activist Shane Te Pou. If you’re like me, and admire Dame Annette King the person and politician, you’ll enjoy this authorised biography. It offers an entertaining guided tour … Read more
Broadcasting legend Elizabeth Alley reviews Loving Sylvie, the gorgeous, ephemeral new novel by Elizabeth Smither. A bride is rowed across a grey-green lake to her wedding. She rehearses her new name, “Sylvie Grace Taverner,” as the waters lap the boat. There’s a black swan and a flotilla of ducks. The oarsman is her grandfather Kit, … Read more
Right about now, Vincent O’Malley is delivering a mighty Michael King Memorial Lecture at the Auckland Writers Festival. In this startling extract from his new book, The New Zealand Wars Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa, O’Malley explains how the decimation of Māori in Tūranga (Gisborne) “completely eclipsed” the country’s losses in Gallipoli. Actual fighting may have … Read more
New poetry by Wellington writer Chris Tse. The Magician—Notes on distraction Every time I turn to see where I should be looking I see my reflection. ~ There is so much of the world within reach from your desk—screens within screens, and holes within holes—tails wagging dogs, and newspapers crying wolf. … Read more
Madeleine Chapman wrote a book and was asked to speak about it at a writers festival. The problem was, nobody wanted to listen. No one came. Seriously, no one came. The first sign, a red flag drifting through my subconscious, was the modest attendance at the three person 2pm panel. Three writers, all known, one … Read more
The only published and available best-selling book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Dead People I Have Known by Shayne Carter (Victoria University Press, $40) Welcome to the charts, Shayne. You’ll stay a while, yeah? … Read more
Sam Brooks has a transcendent experience at the part of the Auckland Writers Festival grown-ups never hear about: the school sessions. A few years ago I could’ve been mistaken for a teenager, especially given that I dress like a toddler recently given autonomy over their fashion. As I walked around the Aotea Centre, a space … Read more
A poem from Ockham prize-winning poet Helen Heath. Helen Heath’s second collection of poetry, Are Friends Electric?, took out the top poetry prize – now sponsored by Peter and Mary Biggs – last night at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Are Friends Electric? is a work that explores questions of life and death and … Read more
The Spinoff had multiple scouts at last night’s awards bash. This piece is by Alec Redvers-Hill, and we’ve dropped in a selection of texts from Spinoff publisher Duncan Greive, who maintained a barrage of such updates all night. Duncan Greive’s texts are [italicised]. “So, who won?” It’s a perfectly natural thing to ask about an … Read more
Tatau: A History of Sāmoan Tattooing won the Illustrated Non-Fiction category at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards last night. Convenor Douglas Lloyd Jenkins called it “a visual feast… a milestone in contemporary publishing… a book that will expand and enrich the knowledge of readers throughout Aotearoa, the Pacific and beyond”. Here, authors Sean Mallon … Read more
Fiona Kidman! The clock strikes nine and we can reveal all. Fiona Kidman Fiona Kidman Fiona Kidman! Congratulations, Fiona Kidman, winner of the 2019 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize, the richest prize in New Zealand literature, for This Mortal Boy, ahead of Vincent O’Sullivan, Lloyd Jones and Kate Duignan. Fiona wins $53,000 and a lot of … Read more
The deadline for our lavish Ockhams giveaway – a stack of all 16 books on the shortlist – has rolled on by and it’s time to announce a winner. Rant, we said. Tell us about the book that dipped out, the one that should’ve made the shortlist. Tell us why the judges are know-nothing nincompoops. The … Read more
Chloe Blades on the raw, complex and unabashedly feminist new novel by the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. There’s a plethora of novels hitting shop shelves that retell the ancient epics. Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls gives voices to the pillaged slave women of Homer’s Iliad. In … Read more
After efforts to persuade the editor of the Friday poem, Ashleigh Young, to run a new work by poet Ashleigh Young in the series proved unsuccessful, The Spinoff Review of Books is launching ‘The Monday poem’. Here we present Turn Out to Be Something by Ashleigh Young from her brand new collection How I Get … Read more
A saddle sore, a teal bridesmaid’s dress and the Ngāruawāhia High School hall: how Marilyn Waring became the National candidate for Raglan. An extract from her new memoir The Political Years. In 1974, it was my habit to go to the library at Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand’s capital, to read each morning’s newspaper. On … Read more
New verse from poet and playwright Renee Liang. Contents of a mummy Tardis handbag 1 pair sparkly sneakers 1 small bag defrosted peas, rejected by non-health-conscious ducks in the domain re 1 tube sunblock (unused) 2 battery packs for iPad iPad, open at Lego Star Wars game iPhone, open at Pokémon Go wallet packed with … Read more
Unity and The Spinoff are very proud to announce the arrival of this new monthly feature. Because we love kids, and we love books, and we’re really sick of buying shitty books by mistake and having to read them 87,000 bedtimes in a row. These lists cover April 10 – May 8. AUCKLAND 1 Encyclopedia … Read more
The only published and available best-selling book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Unreliable People by Rosetta Allan (Penguin Random House, $38) First novel: murders in Ōtāhuhu. Slight segue to second novel: the purge … Read more
Ecologist Robert Vennell is a man mad on plants. His book The Meaning of Trees: The history and use of New Zealand’s native trees tells the stories of the forest giants – kauri, tōtara et al – and the kelp that throngs our beaches. He writes about the oddballs, the plants that are revered, and those used … Read more
All of the books up for the country’s shiniest literary gongs at the Auckland Writers Festival are boxed up in some publicist’s back room, just waiting to be shipped to YOU!! Every year the Auckland Writers Festival unfolds at the Aotea Centre, a glorious parallel universe where you get to sit in a comfy chair … Read more
As Wellington and Waikanae face a winter without two beloved libraries, Marion McLeod reviews The Library Book, a hymn to a library that burned. This is a book for Wellingtonians. I don’t usually adhere to the geographical school of reviewing but this book, sadly, is published at a perfect time for Wellington, for its librarians, … Read more
Playwright and The Spinoff’s culture editor Sam Brooks interviews Val Emmich, author of Dear Evan Hansen, about the life-changing process of adapting a smash Broadway musical into a book. Musicals and young adult novels have a few things in common, earnestness and accessibility being two of them, but the most prominent thing they share is … Read more
The only published and available best-selling book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan (Penguin Random House, $37) “What is the conversation like between the two humans when one … Read more