Kim Stanley Robinson is a master of science fiction, and specialises in the climate crisis. His latest novel The Ministry for the Future explores a particularly grim metric. A “wet bulb” is exactly what it sounds like: a thermometer wrapped in a wet towel. It’s a measure of both heat and humidity, and it’s also … Read more
Having started the pandemic storyline, God, or perhaps the scriptwriters working on the world’s stories, have lost the plot. By Linda Burgess. Even my internal monologue is boring. Even reliving old fights with my sister, old crushes, old ideas for stories, is like trudging along a street where all the houses are meanly built and … Read more
Catherine Chidgey’s new novel functions, disturbingly, as a mirror, writes Elizabeth Heritage. Every time I read a pukapuka set in Nazi times I become obsessed with the question: what would I have done if I had been there? I remember studying Nazi Germany in high school and perseverating on the idea that the ordinary … Read more
What’s the best way to get adults reading? Get them reading when they’re children – and there’s no better place to start than the Unity Children’s Bestseller Chart. AUCKLAND 1 Neands by Dan Salmon (OneTree House, $24, 12+) A note on the font: we found it almost impossible to read. Those who’ve persevered seem to … Read more
The only published and available best-selling 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 Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s True Story of the Life-changing Magic of Compassion & Mindfulness by James Doty (Hodder … Read more
A new poem from Auckland poet Lily Holloway. Sentries I’m frantically chasing my mother who weaves in and out of the aisles throwing down craft supplies. I trip over scissors and quick unpicks not seeing her face, only clean ponytail and collar poking out over plum cardigan. We run between shelves of antique vases but … Read more
Unfortunately, this is an imaginary letter written by nomadic, wild-living Miriam Lancewood to be read at Wellington’s Verb Festival next week. Verb opens on Thursday, October 29 and will run until Sunday, November 8. For the showcase event on Friday night, nine writers were asked to write letters with this prompt: “An envelope with your … Read more
What does it mean to find courage in the face of a global pandemic, race protests, border strife and climate anxiety? Books editor Catherine Woulfe writes: Christchurch’s Word spring festival opens tomorrow. In real life! A highlight will be the Brave Worlds gala on Friday night, at which luminaries (Becky Manawatu, Witi Ihimaera, Elizabeth Knox, … Read more
David Hill’s beloved junior fiction book See Ya, Simon is 28 years old. The boy who inspired it died in his first year of high school. That backstory is well known but now, Hill fills in the detail, including the obligation he felt to his daughter, and the grief that kept him company as he … Read more
Until recently, it seemed the Verb literary festival was destined to go the same way as so many live events this Covid-cursed year. Now the festival is all go – and its director can finally breathe out, she tells Michelle Langstone. Claire Mabey did a tarot reading every day during New Zealand’s first Covid-19 lockdown. … Read more
A poem by Ockham Award-winning novelist Becky Manawatu. Crumbs between stones Tēnā koe XXXX I am writing to ask you some questions regarding a family harm incident which police responded to on Friday night. What time did the woman make the initial call? What time did police arrive at the scene? Was anyone arrested? If … Read more
The only published and available best-selling 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 Aroha: Māori Wisdom for a Contented Life Lived in Harmony with our Planet by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin, $30) There was a … Read more
An extract from Witi Ihimaera’s new book Navigating the Stars: Māori creation myths. This is an abridged passage of a deeply empathetic section analysing the life story of Hine-nui-te-pō, who crushed Māui to death with her vulva. At the end of the book, Ihimaera argues that Hine-nui-te-pō should be instated to her “rightful place among … Read more
The Marae TV journalist tells the origin story of her debut novel, a young adult book releasing this week. Patricia Grace wrote a story called “It used to be green once” and every year my Pākehā teacher would pull it out in English class and everyone would laugh at the poor Mowri family with 10 … Read more
A new poem from poet and teacher Rhys Feeney. when i grow up, i want to be nothing at all people pen poems on the bar’s toilet walls polemics for sucking peen & voting for corbyn i read each poem & do a breathing exercise before pissing & checking my phone the muffled reverb of … Read more
The only published and available best-selling 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 Take Your Space: Successful Women Share Their Secrets by Rachel Petero and Jo Cribb (OneTree House, $34) Painting, law, finance, photography, business, … Read more
The legendary photographer’s new book Nature – Stilled showcases museum specimens the public rarely sees. Books editor Catherine Woulfe writes: People say “stunning” lightly but that’s really what it felt like, the first time I opened Nature – Stilled. There is no flicking through. You sit and you look properly and it is a pleasure, … Read more
An urgent message from our sponsors, Unity Books. ‘Twas two weeks til Christmas and all was amiss, a pandemic had struck and put book stocks at risk. Our books were all coming by cargo ship, because air freight from Aussie was given the snip. So those stockings you hang by the chimney with care, might … Read more
Bernard Beckett is a brainy, elegant writer, best known for his young adult novels Genesis, August and Lullaby. Here, with a new book in the offing, he shares his rule for stacking up stories that work. Like most who dabble in writing, I’ve tried my hand at a few different formats: play scripts, screenplays, novels … Read more
Victory Park is the first novel from Mākaro Press since August 2019, when they put out a little book called Auē. I remember what it felt like to finish Becky Manawatu’s Auē, which went on to win last year’s Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. Electric. Elating. An in-my-bones knowing that this story mattered. Victory … Read more
A new poem by Wellington poet Anahera Gildea. Separation anxiety Healing comes with rhythm, dance the folds of the land it matters how you tell a story that resists breath is healing exchange, recitation a fusilade of calling across the pae … Read more
The only published and available best-selling 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 Short Poems of New Zealand by Jenny Bornholdt (Victoria University Press, $35) “Initially, she thought of six lines and under … Read more
It’s a popstar memoir. It’s also about one man’s immense compassion, writes Sam Brooks. Content warning: contains details of rape, sexual abuse and violence. On a whim, this past weekend I picked up Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead. The elegant epistolary novel, much lauded on its release 16 years ago, is set in mid 20th century America, … Read more
In her new book examining the link between nature and wellbeing, environmental historian Dr Catherine Knight explores the benefits of nature experienced by everyday New Zealanders, and argues for more nature in the places where most New Zealanders live – our towns and cities. In New Zealand, we think of ourselves as a country rich … Read more
As we emerged, blinking, from the first lockdown, essa may ranapiri said they might write a response to the wonderful poetry published by Māori writers over that strange time. They did not want the work “dumped in the world and forgotten” – they wanted it seen, held high, lit up. Here is that piece. He … Read more
What’s the best way to get adults reading? Get them reading when they’re children – and there’s no better place to start than the Unity Children’s Bestseller Chart. AUCKLAND 1 Dog Man #9: Grime & Punishment by Dav Pilkey (Graphix/Scholastic, $19, 6-9) “You’ll howl with laughter!” 2 Lizard’s Tale by Weng Wai Chan (Text Publishing … Read more
The only published and available best-selling 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 Ottolenghi: Flavour by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage (Ebury, $60) Charred peppers and fresh corn polenta with soy-cured yolk. Potato salad … Read more
A new poem by Cadence Chung. Girls just wanna have fun Girls just wanna have fun girls just wanna be fatal eyeliner like slits in their skin lipstick like bloodstains nails like claws Girls just wanna escape but there is no escape when the past rattles from all directions in time so they find escape … Read more
In Ted Dawe’s new novel Answering to the Caul, traumatised young men obliterate the schools that made ‘ordinary kids into evil bastards’. And as Dawe told the Herald last week, his sensational 2012 novel Into the River had its roots in the sex abuse scandal that’s just blown open at Dilworth School. Here, Dawe writes … Read more