Our annual selection of the 100 finest titles of the year, chosen by books editor Mark Broatch and Listener contributors.
FICTION
ALL FOURS by Miranda July (Canongate)
An unnamed 45-year-old artist escapes her family and hides out in a nearby motel room with a much younger married man in this clever, observant, sexually uninhibited novel.
THE ALTERNATIVES by Caoilinn Hughes (Oneworld)
Sharp, funny, sly story, but also deeply moving and original in its use of language, of four brilliant but damaged Irish sisters in their 30s who reunite in Ireland for the first time in a number of years.
BIG TIME by Jordan Prosser (UQP)
Page-turning satirical dystopia set in a near-future police-state Australia in which devotees of the drug F can peer into their own futures.
CALEDONIAN ROAD by Andrew O’Hagan (Faber)
Sweeping, fast-paced, ambitious social satire with a large, multilayered cast set in modern-day London.
DELIRIOUS by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Wellingtonian Wilkins’ latest, about a couple who decide to move into a retirement home, contemplates age, marriage, everyday tragedies and what comes after.
ENTITLEMENT by Rumaan Alam (Bloomsbury)
Stylishly written tale of money, race and identity, in which a New York woman takes on a role in a billionaire’s charitable foundation and her ambition and sense of entitlement start to get out of control.
THE FIRST FRIEND by Malcolm Knox (Allen & Unwin)
Clever and enjoyable blackly comedic satire set in the Soviet Union of 1938 explores the monstrous rule of Stalin through the friendship of an unstable regional boss and his childhood pal.
GABRIEL’S MOON by William Boyd (Viking)
Intriguing, energetic, le Carré-adjacent 1960s story of an accidental spy drawn into a shadowy web.
THE HEART IN WINTER by Kevin Barry (Canongate)
Set in Montana in 1890, this Western tale from the dexterous Irish writer, full of humour and fine writing, concerns a couple of lovers on the run.
A HOUSE BUILT ON SAND by Tina Shaw (Text)
Warmly told, finely crafted, convincing story centring on a NZ woman, apparently in early cognitive decline but also keeping secrets, who is cared for by a dedicated daughter.
INTERMEZZO by Sally Rooney (Faber)
Uncommon, spellbinding, often funny story centred on two grieving Dublin brothers that deepens your feeling for the wonder of life, the strangeness of humanity and the vigour and reach of the novel.
JAMES by Percival Everett (Pan Macmillan)
Gripping reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in which Huck’s slave accomplice Jim is now educated and no longer a victim but the compelling and passionate star of his story.
JUICE by Tim Winton (Hamish Hamilton)
The fêted Australian writer’s sobering, propulsive vision of how we might live in an overheated future.
KAIROS by Jenny Erpenbeck (A&U)
Profound, beautiful, downbeat winner of the International Booker Prize casts an ill-fated, power-imbalanced love affair against the backdrop of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
KATARAINA by Becky Manawatu (Mākaro Press)
Lyrically written, unconventional sequel to Manawatu’s prize-winning Auē, which puts Aunty Kat centre stage.
LONG ISLAND by Colm Tóibín (Picador)
If Tóibín’s Brooklyn was a tale of going away, its as-good sequel is a book of coming back, told with his familiar lucid simplicity, subtle humour and narrative restraint.
MANIA by Lionel Shriver (Hemlock)
Funny, occasionally objectionable satire from the iconoclast, which foresees a future where meritocracy based on intelligence is regarded as heresy.
THE MINISTRY OF TIME by Kaliane Bradley (Hachette)
Time-travel novel by Cambodian-English writer, a debut that’s smart as hell on lives past and modern, sweetly romantic and genuinely funny.
THE MIRES by Tina Makereti (Ultimo Press)
Set in a near-future where refugees are arriving in a post-plague New Zealand to escape Northern Hemisphere heat, Makereti’s latest is a textured novel of messages, and the indefatigability of nature.
NEW STORIES by Owen Marshall (Penguin)
A collection of tremendous variation in character, situation and setting, alert observation, wry humour and gravitas, full of Marshall’s familiar happenstance encounters, small dreams and thwarted aspirations.
ORBITAL by Samantha Harvey (Vintage)
In Harvey’s novella-length Booker winner, not much happens for the sextet aboard the International Space Station, but it’s a profound and luminously written study of human life on and off the planet.
OUR EVENINGS by Alan Hollinghurst (Picador)
Again concerning an outsider making his way in an indifferent, occasionally brutal world, Hollinghurst’s latest comes with his familiar, elegant style, the early boldness giving way to something quieter, but still with his keen observation, subtlety and humour.
PLAYGROUND by Richard Powers (Hutchinson Heinemann)
The tale of two childhood friends, one who becomes a technology billionaire, develops into a thoughtful, ambitious, multi-narrative story about seasteading in the Pacific, climate change and the fate of the oceans.
PRECIPICE by Robert Harris (Hutchinson Heinemann)
It’s the summer of 1914, and married British PM Henry Asquith is hopelessly, incautiously infatuated with 26-year-old aristocrat Venetia Stanley in this absorbing, based-on-truth tale.
PRETTY UGLY by Kirsty Gunn (Otago University Press)
Third collection of stories from the Wellington-born, UK-based author, some unsettling, yet full of her precise prose, juxtapositions and stylistic experimentation.
THE ROYAL FREE by Carl Shuker (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Complex, compelling classic about a Kiwi copy editor at a medical journal set in a decaying and terrifying London as the UK health system falls apart.
THE SAFE KEEP by Yael van der Wouden (Viking)
The Dutch author’s exceptional debut, shortlisted for the Booker, begins as a novel of manners and evolves into an erotic and suspenseful thriller with keen historical implications.
TELL ME EVERYTHING by Elizabeth Strout (Viking)
The master of intimate relationships brings together her best-known characters amid a murder mystery in a smart, humane novel.
THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY by Elif Shafak (Penguin)
This captivating, centuries-sweeping, intellectually rich semi-mythological tale irrigated through the metaphors and concerns of water.
TIME OF THE CHILD by Niall Williams (Bloomsbury)
A baby is left in the care of an Irish doctor and his daughter. Sparkling prose, delivering a mood lyrical and dark one moment and Irish-funny the next.
TOM LAKE by Ann Patchett (Bloomsbury)
Layered, reflective and beautifully measured story of three daughters and their influential thespian mother set during the pandemic.
WHEN I OPEN THE SHOP by Romesh Dissanayake (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Unconventional, beautifully textured, humour-buoyed debut novel about grief, hospo and getting by.
WRONG NORMA by Anne Carson (Jonathan Cape)
Canadian poet Anne Carson’s collection of mismatched pieces, with her own illustrations, reveals her as a wickedly clever short-story writer.
YOU ARE HERE by David Nicholls (Hachette)
Nicholls’ latest novel, in which a midlife couple walk through the Lake District, is full of gentle humour and loveable, relatable characters.
CRIME & THRILLERS
17 YEARS LATER by JP Pomare (Hachette)
Pomare’s latest goes deeper than its “Did he do it, or not?” hook to explore societal biases, blind spots in NZ’s criminal justice system, and the ethics of true crime podcasting.
THE CALL by Gavin Strawhan (A&U)
Smart debut from an experienced Kiwi scriptwriter, in which a police officer returns to her coastal hometown after a violent attack to heal and tend to her ailing mother.
THE CRACKED MIRROR by Chris Brookmyre (Abacus)
Oddball pairing of cosy Scottish sleuth and hardboiled LAPD cop takes readers on a helter-skelter thrill ride that’s much more than it seems.
DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK by Kate Atkinson (Penguin)
Jaunty, confident country house-theft and intrigue mystery in the style of Agatha Christie, featuring retired detective Jackson Brodie.
THE DROWNED by John Banville (Faber)
The Irish writer flexes his thriller muscles in a first-class new Strafford and Quirke mystery that spins around the case of a missing woman.
EVERYBODY KNOWS by Jordan Harper (Faber)
Sharply written noir in which a crisis management publicist and her ex-lover stumble into a Hollywood conspiracy.
HIGHWAY 13 by Fiona McFarlane (A&U)
Cleverly written series of short stories of people, some damaged, some triumphant, linked peripherally to an Australian serial killer.
HOME TRUTHS by Charity Norman (A&U)
Character-centric thriller that explores an all-too-believable premise as a family tragedy meshes with internet conspiracies.
HUNTED by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
Fresh perspective on ticking-clock thrillers as a US mother and a British Muslim father try to find each of their children, who are suspects in a bombing.
LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND by Jacqueline Bublitz (A&U)
Rewarding second novel from the Kiwi author blends supernatural elements with feminist sensibilities as a traumatised amateur detective seeks to solve the disappearance of a young woman.
NO WILL KNOW by Rose Carlyle (Text)
A broke and desperate young pregnant woman lands a plum job on an island as a nanny to a mysterious wealthy couple in this twisty tale.
RETURN TO BLOOD by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster)
Six months after events in Better the Blood, police officer Hana returns to heal at her rural coastal home where her dad Eru still lives, only to stumble across a murder case that suggests the wrong man might have gone to jail.
HISTORY
BORDERLINES: A History of Europe, Told From the Edges by Lewis Baston (Hodder Press)
A tour through Europe that explains why the lines on the map were drawn where they are. Deeply knowledgeable, but never boring.
THE EASTERN FRONT by Nick Lloyd (Viking)
Compelling account, with much from previously unreported sources, by one of the best military historians. The second volume of his World War I trilogy, it offers an understanding of what will later transpire in the region.
EIGHTEEN: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives by Alice Loxton (Pan Macmillan)
From a young historian, an original, vivid and witty exploration of Britain’s past through 18 figures at the formative age of 18, from Elizabeth Tudor to Vita Sackville-West to Richard Burton.
THE GOLDEN ROAD by William Dalrymple (Bloomsbury)
Compelling history from the bestselling historian persuasively argues that India thoroughly deserves a place among the great civilisations for its exporting of culture and ideas over centuries through ancient Eurasia.
HENRY V: The Astonishing Rise of England’s Greatest Warrior King by Dan Jones (Bloomsbury)
Highly accessible biography that explains why the mature king was brilliant at war but also how gravity, religiosity and intensity of focus were essential parts of his character even as a young man.
A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN TWELVE SHIPWRECKS by David Gibbins (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
The author, a maritime archaeologist and deep-sea diver, offers an enjoyable account of what a dozen shipwrecks can tell us about the societies they came from ‒ from prehistory sea traders to the Romans, Vikings and the slave trade.
HITLER’S PEOPLE by Richard J Evans (Allen Lane)
The British historian asks what happened to the moral compass of many Germans in this meticulously researched study of the dictator’s inner circle of senior Nazis, enforcers and enablers.
HOW THE WORLD MADE THE WEST: A 4000-year History by Josephine Quinn (Bloomsbury)
In this fascinating, erudite history, the Oxford classics professor argues that Western civilisation is a mosaic of not just Greece and Rome, but also the myriad societies that preceded and surrounded them.
LAND BETWEEN THE RIVERS: A 5000-year History of Iraq by Bartle Bull (Atlantic)
Engaging, detailed history of the birthplace of civilisation, from the reign of Gilgamesh to the bloody overthrow of the royal family in 1958.
MADRID: A New Biography by Luke Stegemann (Yale University Press)
The Australian cultural historian presents a sweeping, character-filled reappraisal of Spain’s capital, explaining how a minor settlement became the centre of a vast empire and a modern global city.
OTHER RIVERS: A Chinese Education by Peter Hessler (A&U)
Beautifully written blend of memoir and reportage by the New Yorker journalist, who taught in China. It tackles the question of how the country could have gone through such enormous economic and social change but remained politically stagnant.
SMOKE AND ASHES: Opium’s Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh (Hachette)
Sweeping, insightful, deeply personal account of the opium industry, the British colonial project and the drug’s role in Indian and Chinese history by the novelist, a social anthropologist by training.
A TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE MIDDLE AGES by Anthony Bale (Viking)
Full of fascinating and odd details, this entertaining account by a British professor of medieval studies explores public travel of the times, primarily for pilgrimage, but also trade and adventure.
UNRULY by David Mitchell (Michael Joseph)
Irreverent and sweary take on the British monarchy to the end of the Tudors by the actor-comedian. It’s more good comedy than erudite history, and all the better for it.
VENICE: The Remarkable History of the Lagoon City by Dennis Romano (Oxford University Press)
Comprehensive, academically rigorous but still entertaining account of La Serenissima by Romano, a retired American history professor, that’s full of vivid characters.
LIFE STORIES
ELIOT AFTER THE WASTE LAND by Robert Crawford (Vintage)
Second volume of Crawford’s authoritative account of the poet, drawing on new sources, including long-unavailable love letters. It tackles the poet’s contradictions and situates his plays and poems within the events of his life.
FRONTLINE SURGEON by Mark Derby (Massey University Press)
Derby’s well-researched, very readable book tells Doug Jolly’s story as a pioneering surgeon in the Spanish Civil War and World War II and shows why he should be placed among New Zealand’s most distinguished expats.
GRID: The Life and Times of First World War Fighter Ace Keith Caldwell by Adam Claasen (Massey University Press)
If Biggles was real, he would have been Keith Caldwell, argues this long-overdue, excellent piece of scholarship on New Zealand’s most famous, dashing and derring-do pioneer of aerial warfare.
HINE TOA: A Story of Bravery by Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku (HarperCollins)
Compelling, candid coming-of-age memoir from the groundbreaking Māori scholar, feminist and political activist.
IN MY TIME OF DYING by Sebastian Junger (HarperCollins)
The celebrated American author and film-maker’s raw account of the abdominal aneurysm that nearly killed him – and the near-death vision of his father in the operating room.
KNIFE by Salman Rushdie (Jonathan Cape)
The novelist’s honest account of the attempt on his life by a knife-wielding attacker in 2022, but also a meditation on life and death and finding love again later in life.
KUBRICK: An Odyssey by Robert P Kolker & Nathan Abrams (Faber)
The late director finally gets the authoritative doorstop biography he deserves, giving his skills and obsessions equal weight.
THE LAST SECRET AGENT by Pippa Latour with Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin)
The truly remarkable story of a young female agent in Nazi-occupied France, who died last year in Auckland, at 102.
MELTING POINT: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land by Rachel Cockerell (Hachette)
Intensely researched and radically constructed account by an English writer of her great-grandfather who, in 1907, took 10,000 Jews to the Texan city of Galveston.
METAMORPHOSES: In Search of Franz Kafka by Karolina Watroba (Profile)
One hundred years after Kafka’s death, Oxford academic Watroba explores in an original new bio how a tubercular insurance agent became a global literary icon.
TROUBLED: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class by Rob Henderson (Swift Press)
Coming-of-age memoir and work of social criticism from the originator of the term “luxury beliefs”, who was born to a drug-addicted mother and absent father, and how he was saved by the military and went on to study at Yale and Cambridge.
A VOYAGE AROUND THE QUEEN by Craig Brown (4th Estate)
Monumental gathering of interactions and snippets about the late Queen Elizabeth II’s life that’s hugely readable and can be enjoyed by royalists and republicans alike.
THE WIDE WIDE SEA by Hampton Sides (Michael Joseph)
This reappraisal of Captain James Cook, written in an authoritative yet lively style by a bestselling American author, focuses on why he embarked on a doomed third circumnavigation of the planet.
MODERN LIFE & POLITICS
IF WE BURN: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution by Vincent Bevins (Hachette)
Compelling and wide ranging investigation of the decade of global protest movements that began in Tunisia in 2011, and why they either didn’t succeed or led to the opposite of what they sought.
LANGUAGE CITY by Ross Perlin (A&U)
A linguist’s captivating portrait of mega-diverse New York through six speakers of endangered languages, including a Nepalese tongue that is spoken by 100 people living in one building in Brooklyn.
THE PICNIC: An Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain by Matthew Longo (Bodley Head)
Three months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, 1000 people made their way across the border between Hungary and Austria. Political scientist Longo tells the story from the viewpoints of ordinary people through to political leaders.
SECOND ACT: What Late Bloomers Can Tell You About Reinventing Your Life by Henry Oliver (Hachette)
Wide-ranging, insightful book combines biographical portraits with academic research to explore the nature and potential of those who achieve majorly later in life.
ART, MUSIC & LITERATURE
EDITH COLLIER: Early NZ Modernist by Jill Trevelyan, Jennifer Taylor and Greg Donson (Massey University Press)
Sumptuously illustrated survey that pays long-overdue tribute to the early-20th-century artist from Whanganui, featuring 150 works and essays on her life and craft.
THE HAUNTED WOOD: A History of Childhood Reading by Sam Leith (OneWorld)
A charming and engaging personal survey of (mostly English) children’s literature, from fables and fairytales to SE Hinton and JK Rowling.
PARIS IN RUINS: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism by Sebastian Smee (Text)
Original study by Australian art critic Smee, a first-class storyteller with a vivid flair for language, which argues the creative impulse of Impressionism arose out of a violent collision of war and radical republicanism.
THE SECRET PUBLIC: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture by Jon Savage (Faber)
Expansive, highly readable investigation of how the gay community shaped contemporary popular culture from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s.
TCHAIKOVSKY’S EMPIRE: A New Life of Russia’s Greatest Composer by Simon Morrison (Yale University Press)
Lively and lucid new account of one of the 19th century’s most important musical figures, by a Princeton music history professor.
TOI TE MANA: An Indigenous History of Māori Art by Deidre Brown and Ngarino Ellis, with Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (Auckland University Press)
Groundbreaking, monumental in scale, this is the most comprehensive survey of mahi toi ever created, from carving to textiles and digital art, written by experts in the field.
WILD THING: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux (Faber)
Biographical writer’s definitive and readable account of the French artist, shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, argues that his remarkable, undeniably problematic life is well worth reconsidering.
SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY & NATURE
THE BEAUTIFUL AFTERNOON by Airini Beautrais (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
A wide-ranging and personal collection of essays from the award-winning fiction writer exploring memory, knowledge, literature and language.
THE CHTHONIC CYCLE by Una Cruickshank (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
This bold first book is a lyrical tour through history and science, pursuing the cycles of death and renewal in society and nature.
EVEREST, INC: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World by Will Cockrell (Gallery Books)
An adventure writer astutely traces the highs and lows of Everest’s exploration since Hillary that have turned its ascent from a singular, life-threatening achievement to a guided extreme sport for thousands.
EVERY LIVING THING: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life by Jason Roberts (Riverrun)
Lively, thought-provoking tale of scientific rivalry between two very different men, Carl Linnaeus and Georges-Louis de Buffon, to be the first to account for all life on Earth.
EVERYTHING MUST GO: The Stories We Tell About The End of the World by Dorian Lynskey (Picador)
Entertaining and deeply researched account of how humanity has imagined its doom, from biblical prophecies to sci-fi films.
THE GARDEN AGAINST TIME: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing (Picador)
Less a history or practical guide to gardening and more a captivating and beautifully written memoir-cum-inquiry into the idea of the garden.
GRIEF IS FOR PEOPLE by Sloane Crosley (Serpent’s Tail)
Honest, insightful, beautifully written and darkly funny memoir about the realities of grief, after the death of the essayist and novelist’s close friend.
HARD BY THE CLOUD HOUSE by Peter Walker (Massey University Press)
Former journalist Walker ambles through archaeology, mythology and Māori lore in search of the legendary but very real Haast Eagle/Te Hokioi. Digressive, but well written and original.
THE LIGHT EATERS: The New Science of Plant Intelligence by Zoë Schlanger (4th Estate)
The plant kingdom is full of wonders and mysteries, argues the US climate journalist Schlanger in this original and entertaining account, with chapter after chapter stacked with delightful examples of recently discovered abilities.
LIVING ON EARTH by Peter Godfrey-Smith (HarperCollins)
Rewarding account, full of insights, from the man often known as a scuba-diving philosopher, that life transforms the very environment that shapes it, for better and worse.
NOT THE END OF THE WORLD: Surprising facts, dangerous myths & hopeful solutions for our future on planet Earth by Hannah Ritchie (Vintage)
Optimistic account from the UK data scientist who offers evidence that while many things in the world are bad, many are not as bad as we think, and things can be a lot better in the future.
OUR MOON: A Human History by Rebecca Boyle (Hachette)
Delightful, sweeping bio of our closest natural satellite, with an eye for amusing detail, by an accomplished US science writer in her first book.
TEN TRIPS: A Psychedelic Adventure by Andy Mitchell (Vintage)
British neuro-psychologist Andy Mitchell takes a range of psychedelic drugs in this rigorous and illuminating book, a journey into the nature of consciousness itself.
WHY WE DIE: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality by Venki Ramakrishnan (Hachette)
The Nobel Prize-winning biologist explores the science of ageing, death and what we might do to extend life in this fascinating and enjoyable book.
YESTERDAY: A New History of Nostalgia by Tobias Becker (Harvard University Press)
Absorbing exploration of the emotion, covering a wide range of phenomena, from sitcoms to revivals and re-enactments, to retro chic, in a time when we have nearly unlimited access to the past.
The 100 Best Books was compiled with the invaluable assistance of Chris Baskett, Helena Brow, Sue Copsey, Nik Dirga, Elisabeth Easther, Brigid Feehan, Greg Fleming, Bob Frame, Mark Fryer, Charlotte Grimshaw, Kirsty Gunn, David Herkt, Linda Herrick, David Hill, Marcus Hobson, Stephanie Johnson, Angelique Kasmara, Anne Kennedy, Fiona Kidman, Danyl McLauchlan, Graeme Lay, Kelly Ana Morey, Emma Neale, Jenny Nicholls, Sue Orr, Nicholas Reid, Sue Reidy, Anna Rogers, Josie Shapiro, Craig Sisterson, Gill South, CK Stead, Erica Stretton, Rebecca Styles, Fiona Sussman, Cheryl Pearl Sucher, Philip Temple, Eric Trump, Tim Upperton, Karin Warnaar, Quentin Wilson and others.
