Audition
by Pip Adam (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Three giants are hurtling through space towards a black hole in the Wellington author’s fourth novel. True to form, it’s a strange and not straightforward story, examining how society treats people who don’t fit the mainstream.
A Better Place
by Stephen Daisley (Text)
The 2016 Ockham NZ Book Awards winner has written a powerfully visceral, poetically told tale of Taranaki twin brothers who head to Crete to serve their country.
Bird Life
by Anna Smaill (THWUP)
Long-awaited new novel from the author of the Booker-longlister The Chimes tells the magical realism-inflected story of two connected women in Tokyo, each dealing with trauma and exploring friendship, grief and madness.
Birnam Wood
by Eleanor Catton (THWUP)
The Kiwi Booker winner’s third novel is a literary thriller, centrally concerning a rogue billionaire and an idealistic team of guerilla gardeners in the South Island, but which also offers a critique of leftist politics and New Zealand society, as it steadily builds to a dramatic crescendo.
The Bone Tree
by Airana Ngarewa (Hachette)
Dark though beautifully written debut about two boys, Kauri and his little brother Black, who live free and truant days in the shadow of what seems to be Mt Taranaki. Kauri goes seeking family truths.
The Deck
by Fiona Farrell (Penguin)
An assured and graceful contribution to pandemic literature and a thoughtful response to our recent experience, inspired by The Decameron and telling the stories of a group of friends in a remote South Island locationd during a plague.
Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts
by Josie Shapiro (Allen & Unwin NZ)
Uplifting, absorbing, evocatively descriptive debut about Mickey Bloom, a talented runner and a driven individual. The novel is powered by twin timelines, of Bloom running a marathon in the present and her evolution from a troubled childhood.
How To Get Fired
by Evana Belich (Penguin)
Debut NZ collection, full of sharp observation and humour, of loosely connected short stories that bristle with disillusioned, angry men and women wishing their lives were different.
Kind
by Stephanie Johnson (Vintage)
Rollicking, blackly comic Kiwi pandemic novel with elements of a pacy thriller, multiple plot strands, involving larger-than-life characters behaving questionably, and a wry social commentary.
Lioness
by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury)
Skilful, alluring novel – Perkins’ first in a decade – about Therese Thorn, who came from little and is now living a life of luxury thanks to her rich husband. But due to a possibly dodgy deal, Therese’s life starts to unravel. As she searches for new meaning, along comes her mysterious new neighbour, Claire.
Pet
by Catherine Chidgey (THWUP)
Evocative page turned about a 12-year-old whose mother has just died and a charismatic, beautiful teacher at her 1980s Catholic school who enters the scene playing favourites.
Ruin and Other Stories
by Emma Hislop (THWUP)
Impressive, insightful, sometimes startling, but beautifully written debut collection of stories, some set here and others overseas, often saying a lot in a sentence and much more in a paragraph.
The Waters
by Carl Nixon (RHNZ Vintage)
Less a typical novel about the Waters, a complex and troubled family from near Christchurch, and more a collection of 21 connected stories that jump between characters, viewpoints and decades and build this dark family drama from the outside in.
The Witching Tide
by Margaret Meyer (Hachette)
A harrowing, well-researched, often lyrically written tale of a 1640s witch hunt in East Anglia inspired by actual events, centred around a mute midwife protagonist with a dynamic inner life.
Be in to win 10 books
For a chance to be the lucky winner of 10 books, email your name and address to listenergiveaways@aremedia.co.nz with ‘Best Books’ in the subject line by midday on December 1. We’ll be running The Year in Books throughout the next week so look out for hot picks for lovers of fiction and non-fiction stories alike.
The 100 Best Books was compiled with the invaluable assistance of Chris Baskett, Helena Brow, Catherine Chidgey, Sue Copsey, Kiran Dass, Nik Dirga, Greg Dixon, Elisabeth Easther, Brigid Feehan, Charlotte Grimshaw, Kirsty Gunn, Linda Herrick, David Hill, Stephanie Johnson, Anne Kennedy, Elizabeth Kerr, Rachael King, Graeme Lay, Eileen Merriman, Chris Moore, Kelly Ana Morey, Emma Neale, Jenny Nicholls, Jeremy Rees, Sue Reidy, Catherine Robertson, Anna Rogers, Josie Shapiro, Tina Shaw, Craig Sisterson, Elizabeth Smither, Gill South, Rebecca Styles, Fiona Sussman, Andrew Paul Wood and others.
