Pulitzer Prize

A review of The Overstory, a knockout novel that speaks for the trees

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Summer reissue: The Overstory, the winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is an engulfing, worldview-shifting novel about climate catastrophe and hope, writes Susan Wardell. (Photographs are from a photo essay on kauri dieback by Michelle Hyslop; captions by Andrea Ewing).  First published 9 April 2020.  The year before last, I spent the month … Read more

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending July 10

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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) Joint winner of the 2019 Booker prize. That was in October … Read more

A review of The Overstory, a knockout novel that speaks for the trees

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The Overstory, the winnner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is an engulfing, worldview-shifting novel about climate catastrophe and hope, writes Susan Wardell. (Photographs are from a photo essay on kauri dieback by Michelle Hyslop; captions by Andrea Ewing).  The year before last, I spent the month of January hugging trees. I picked a … Read more

Look out, here she comes: A review of the luminous, tender Olive, Again

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Marion McLeod revels in the return of Olive Kitteridge, the compassionate curmudgeon who won Elizabeth Strout a Pulitzer Prize.  It’s the year of the sequel:  My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, Toy Story 4, Rambo 5 … Do movies ever make it to double figures? Books and miniseries certainly do. Genre fiction spawns sequels: much-loved … Read more

An inheritance of harm: Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, reviewed

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Colson Whitehead won the 2017 Pultizer Prize for Fiction for The Underground Railroad, a depiction of slavery and resistance in 19th century Georgia. Now he’s back with a similarly grim premise, following two boys through the horrors of a real-life reform school in Florida. Our reviewer is Aaron Smale, whose reporting on similar schools in New … Read more

Books: The Winners of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize

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Steve Braunias recommends the best of  the 2016 Pulitzers. The 2016 Pulitzer Prizes – recognising the best journalism in America, and nominating some of the best books in the the world – were announced earlier today. You ought to have a read of some of these things. They are, as judges didn’t say, fucking fantastic. … Read more