Auckland writer Caroline Barron has a terrific book out today called Ripiro Beach: A Memoir of Life After Near Death. Here, she writes about the memoirs that have been a balm, a lesson, or both. Throughout my life, I’ve sought solace between the covers of books, particularly memoirs. There, I’ve learnt how to take the … Read more
An exclusive interview with Steve McSteverson about his traumatic and tragic ordeal this week. Many New Zealanders are struggling with the news that a children’s book not commissioned or authorised by Jacinda Ardern was advertised in a newsletter for children’s books. This horrific attack on New Zealanders whose ears are permanently fused to Magic Talk … Read more
A poem by Hamilton writer Mere Taito. The quickest way to trap a folktale a research institution walks into a village scholarly clothes sharp alien tools fine-spun birthmarks flow out of a magic twig … 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 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Penguin Classics, $24) Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. The other day, Evaristo tweeted: … Read more
The embargo on this year’s list has just been lifted. Here are all the books in the running for a gong. Huge caveat: we are yet to read them all. We’re working on that, snarled-up postal system permitting. So please consider these initial thoughts. We’re very chuffed to see Our Toby (Morris) in there with … Read more
Amy McDaid works as a neonatal intensive care nurse at Starship. Her first novel is about loss that erodes and the kindness that – eventually – comes after. The accumulation of daily disappointments is a tragedy in itself; a series of pleasures consistently denied, joy deferred and kindness deflected. All the things we hoped for … 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 The Noisy Book by Soledad Bravi (Gecko Press, $25, 0-2) An unusually long board book. What this means is it’ll take your toddler an entire … Read more
Growing up Asian in white New Zealand, Joanna Cho tried to find a mirror in books. I went to a proud, decile 10 high school that had few POC. I prided myself on being part of the “white” group. When my boyfriend in Year 9 broke up with me, because his rugby mates teased him … Read more
A new poem by Wellington writer Joanna Cho. Dig deep! I have to write a poem but I’m finding it quite hard so I call Jos and he says ‘Dig deep!’ He is driving back from basketball in Palmy, where he trains three times a week. I say ‘I just wanted 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 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35) Winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, the most prestigious prize … Read more
In her latest masterpiece, Hilary Mantel finds patterns and rational systems – the dynamic between history and literature, or politics and law, or propaganda and art – and places something malevolent, chaotic and non-rational at the heart of them, writes Danyl Mclachlan. It begins where the last book ended. Anne Boleyn is dead. Her attendants … Read more
A new poem by Auckland poet Hayden Hyams. Matapouri As high as standing allows, where fence posts hang and maps fly where trig towers scratch the lazy back, roots hold up footpaths and footpaths excavate roots I receive this message: Greetings from VFS Global Services LTD Kindly collect your passport from … 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 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Mākaro Press, $35) Elating, awful and true in all the ways that matter. Winner of the … Read more
Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is released internationally today. Books editor Catherine Woulfe is all in. The Hunger Games is 12 years old. Much of the hype and silliness that originally surrounded the series has faded, leaving a story that feels more grown-up, more permanent. It reads so much better now. … Read more
A new poem by Ockham finalist Steven Toussaint. from The Reproaches Confusion isn’t mystery. Oblivion and mastery, but never At the same time. Abide in me. Fustian bargain to render silence clever. Ignatian composition Spoiled by an app’s trill, my fontanelle Closed and with it one grace-receptive station. So I rode my bike … 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 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35) Newly anointed winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. The judges were … Read more
Linda Burgess and Michael Hurst with quite different takes on a new book by New Zealand-born actress, playwright and writer Barbara Ewing. Michael Hurst This is a memoir very much written from the perspective of the present; evocative, authentic, humorous and poignant. Barbara Ewing approaches her subject via a series of diaries she kept all … Read more
Mary McCallum found out last night that Becky Manawatu’s novel Auē, published by her tiny press, had won the richest prize in New Zealand literature. Three of the best nights of my life have been at this country’s national book awards. The first time was 2008 when my novel The Blue, published by Penguin, was … Read more
Last night Becky Manawatu’s Auē won best first novel at the Ockham NZ Book Awards, which she knew about in advance – and the country’s biggest prize for fiction, the $55,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize, which she didn’t. So how’s today treating her? When I woke up this morning (if I can call it waking … Read more
Dead People I Have Known, a memoir, just won the General Non-Fiction category at the New Zealand Book Awards. The judges were Hocken librarian and documentary and cultural heritage collections advisor Sharon Dell, bookseller and reviewer Stella Chrysostomou and journalist Guyon Espiner. Their comments, per the press release: “From the first page, Shayne Carter … Read more
Pour some bubbly, stick some sausage rolls on a platter, and park yourself in front of the laptop – the lockdown Ockhams are being broadcast live tonight on YouTube. Courtesy of illustrator Toby Morris, we have just the thing to complete your viewing experience. Tonight, the 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards ceremony goes live … Read more
An essay-review of Becky Manawatu’s novel Auē, one of four finalists for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, the most prestigious of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. There are ghosts. They are real. You are born with them. You will die with them. They are your inheritance and will be your legacy. Cest … Read more
A poem by Ockham finalist Helen Rickerby. How to die From here there is nowhere else to go only a question of the journey, the route and the hope of meandering through a few more summers We say we don’t want suffering but often given a chance, we will choose it It all … 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 The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate, $50) The author, to Vulture: “When I got towards the … Read more
An independent, sensuous life unfolds in hundreds of brightly-lit scenes. I first heard of Ian Wedde in the 1960s, through his poetry. It was a jolt. Wasn’t verse supposed to be runic and remote? This guy was chatting to you! OK, chatting in a voice that was colloquial yet innovative; expansive and technically virtuosic, but … Read more
Benjamin Kingsbury is the author of The Dark Island, an account of New Zealand’s experience with leprosy in the early 1900s. Here he writes about what quarantine was like for those suffering from the disease. Early in 1906, Christchurch Hospital admitted a man whose face and arms had become a mass of angry sores. Hospital … Read more
TL;DR: you probably will read a book again. Maybe even write one. How’s your brain been? Quite shite? Same. Anyway, after many fits and starts and much staring out the window and also rewatching Twilight, here is a Q&A with very patient and busy clinical psychologist Dr Kimberly Falconer. (Falconer, in lockdown with her husband … Read more
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass. Book news Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist – the prize’s 25th year. The shortlist was announced on the Women’s Prize for Fiction social channels: Dominicana by Angie Cruz Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo A Thousand Ships by … Read more
Two musicians head for the hills to seek out peace, snowmelt swims and Samuel Butler’s fictional utopia, Erewhon. Imagine a land where the unwell are treated like criminals. Perhaps now we don’t have to. Erewhon is such a place. Law breakers are tended and cared for while the sick are imprisoned. Machinery is outlawed and … Read more