Grounded in the UK, Scarlett Cayford is nostalgic for a very specific reading experience. In order to qualify as an “airport book” a novel must meet a very specific set of requirements. The first, unsurprisingly, is that it must be purchased at an airport. But this is far from being the only defining characteristic of … 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
Welcome to the second edition of our lockdown Top 10s. A reminder that this chart has nothing to do with sales or launches or the publishing cycle; these are just books the Unity team love – and this week it’s westerns, full of big skies and long rides and showdowns. AUCKLAND All by Jo McColl: … Read more
At 16, apropos of nothing, Elizabeth Engledow set herself a Herculean task: read all the classics. Six years in she wondered, would we like to publish a few reviews? The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, 1915 It’s a novella, yes, but don’t underestimate the little guys. Gregor Samsa is a door-to-door salesman with a dick … 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
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
All week this week we present the best books of 2018. Today: the 20 best novels. Previously: the best kids books, poetry books and non-fiction books of 2018. Past Tense by Lee Child (Bantam, $38) Reacher. Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber, $33) Was the Irish writer’s love story the best novel of 2018? From the forthcoming … Read more
Okay so of course that one by George Saunders that won the Booker is among the best 20 novels of 2017 – but what were the others? Funny you should ask! The Power by Naomi Alderman (Penguin, $26) The novel for our times. It’s a sci-fi feminist allegory of a society in which women are in charge, … Read more