Hiwa: Contemporary Māori Short Stories by Edited by Paula Morris and Darryn Joseph
Category: NZ Fiction
Hiwa is a vibrant, essential collection of contemporary Maori short stories, featuring twenty-seven writers working in English or te reo Maori. The writers range from famous names and award winners - Patricia Grace, Witi Ihimaera, Whiti Hereaka, Becky Manawatu, Zeb Nicklin - to emerging voices like Shel ...Show more
The Vanishing Point by Andrea Hotere
Category: NZ Fiction
A dazzling and spellbinding debut about a mysterious painting, the secrets it keeps, and the two women connected across centuries by a quest to discover the truth - for readers of Geraldine Brooks, Tracy Chevalier and Maggie O'Farrell. London, 1991: Alex Johns, an art intern at the Courtauld, believes ...Show more
Better the Blood by Michael Bennett
Category: NZ Fiction
A DETECTIVE IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH. A KILLER IN SEARCH OF RETRIBUTION. A CLASH BETWEEN CULTURE AND DUTY. THE PAST NEVER TRULY STAYS BURIED. Hana Westerman is a tenacious Ma ori detective juggling single motherhood and the pressures of her career in Auckland’s Central Investigation Branch. When she’s l ...Show more
The Bone Tree by Airana Ngarewa
Category: NZ Fiction
After the death of both parents, Kauri and Black must find a way to survive in a world that doesn't care much about them. Kauri embarks on a journey into his father's past, to come to terms with the trauma he's experienced in his short life, and to break the cycle of violence he fears perpetuating as he ...Show more
A Better Place by Stephen Daisley
Category: NZ Fiction
In a novel of stark and lyrical beauty, award-winning author Stephen Daisley portrays the brutal effects of war on two New Zealand brothers. The old people in the district would often say that Roy was not quite the same after he come back. There was a brother. A twin brother, Tony. Tony Mitchell, diff ...Show more
Catch a Falling Star (#0.5 Catch Me When You Fall) by Eileen Merriman
Category: NZ Fiction
A fifteen-year-old reaches for stardom as he slides into psychosis. Francesca - known to everyone as Frankie - has scored the part of Princess Fiona in the forthcoming musical production. Even though Jamie Orange has missed out on the part of Shrek, he's happy - The day I found out I was a donkey was on ...Show more
Tangi by Witi Ihimaera
Category: NZ Fiction
First released 50 years ago, Tangi was Witi Ihimaera's debut novel and the first to be published by a Māori. A landmark literary event, it went on to win the James Wattie Book of the Year Award. He was just 29 years old at the time. At the centre of the novel is the story of a father and son set within ...Show more
Dice by Claire Baylis
Category: NZ Fiction | Reading Level: very good
Four teenage boys invent a sex game based on rolling dice and doing what the numbers say. They are charged with multiple sexual offences against three teenage girls. Twelve random jurors are brought together in a trial to work out what actually happened. Only they can say whether crimes have been commit ...Show more
Audition by Pip Adam
Category: NZ Fiction
A finalist for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2024 - The Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. Audition is hurtling through space towards the event horizon. Squashed immobile into its rooms are three giants: Alba, Stanley and Drew. If they talk, the spaceship keeps moving; if they are silent, the ...Show more
Lioness by Emily Perkins
Category: NZ Fiction | Reading Level: near fine
You know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me. From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of corruption gather ...Show more
Son by Neil Sonnekus
Category: NZ Fiction
Len and his father, Son, couldn't be more different. If Len is a recently divorced man of 42 who just wants sex, then his old man is a World War Two veteran in his late 80s, who is impossible. Len is a decadent subeditor at a South African newspaper, the old man is an old-school puritan. They have nothi ...Show more
The Deck by Fiona Farrell
Category: NZ Fiction | Reading Level: near fine
During a time of plague and profound social collapse, a group of friends escape to a house in the country where they entertain themselves by playing music, eating, drinking and telling stories about their lives. The Deck borrows the motifs of Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th-century masterpiece The Decameron t ...Show more