Greta Jellings lives a small life. No expectation, no disappointment had been her mother’s mantra. It serves Greta well now too. At 30-something years of age she has spent her life pleasing others; working for the past 22 years in a pool-... read more

Wry, moving, beautifully observed and politically astute, this latest novel from one of our finest chroniclers pinpoints universal truths through very New Zealand lives.
Life isn't always like it appears in the movies. In 1952, Irene Sandle takes her young da... read more

In the foreground of All Visitor's Ashore is a set of bizarre characters, all of whom seem bent on escaping from New Zealand into a larger world. The 1951 waterfront lockout is on, the harbour is full of cargo vessels, but the passenger ships continue to sail. One by on... read more

Readers of Mike Ledingham's first book, ONCE A GRUNT, will be familiar with the characters in many of these stories. As with the first book, the characters in Always a Grunt are loosely categorized into military-related and non-military yarns. There are also a couple of uncategorized stories, both of ... read more

In Ancestry Albert Wendt introduces us to a cast of characters who live life balanced between the Samoan and Palagi worlds. Andrea’s husband is surprised when she gets up early one Anzac Day to take their daughter and half-Palagi grandson to the dawn parade. Later that day A... read more

This rich and darkly humorous novel is about family history and the power and risk of knowledge.
'I want to tell you a story about my mother, although of course it is also mine u inherited, along with dangly earlobes and a horror of deep water.'
Janine's mother ha... read more

Her came from behind and held her in his arms, told her to look again at earth and sky and water. Could she see how the world turned silver? People died, he told her, because they were afraid. They did not go out at night on dangerous water. They did not see th... read more

The present reckons with the past in Attraction. Porter's unnamed narrator is on a road trip between Auckland, Whangara and Levin with her friends Ashi and Ilana, haunted by the spectre of her emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend, her complicated family background and New Zealand's ... read more

Winner! of the Ockham NZ Book Awards - Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction 2020.
Taukiri was born into sorrow. Auē can be heard in the sound of the sea he loves and hates, and in the music he draws out of the guitar that was his father's. It spills out of the gang violence tha... read more

Reprinted March 2006. This extraordinary Maori Novel was published in 1975 and has been reprinted many times since. It was the first time that anyone, Maori or Pakeha, had written frankly about what Maori life had really been like. A film of this novel is in the early stages of production.

In her first volume of memoir, Fiona Kidman described her background and childhood, evoking the places she lived in and the people she knew. It finished with the publication of her first, hugely successful novel. In this sequel she takes us through t... read more