If you like ... the great Kiwi novel
Annotation:Barbara Anderson started writing in her 60s, and offers complex and well-developed human stories with a strong sense of place.
Place a Hold
Annotation:Although set in 1961, this is a timeless snapshot of growing up in rural New Zealand. Narrated by nine-year old Solly who is full of imagination and curiosity, many of us will recall childhoods and family holidays with all of these same overtones. Highly recommended!
Annotation:Paul Cleave's novels are set in a seedy and debauched city of crime. Detailing the mystery of serial killer the Christchurch Carver, The Cleaner is a darkly gritty urban crime novel.
Annotation:Max tells the story of his friendship with Andy, with its wildness, glory and its bitter misunderstandings. Kate de Goldi writes fiction with a strong sense of NZ voice and place. Her novels sit comfortably in both adult and young adult collections, and we also recommend the 2008 award-winning The 10pm Question.
Annotation:Fag and Ginnie, two sisters growing up in working-class Christchurch in the 1930s and 1940s look at their lives, describing their family, their schooling, and their fantasies.
Annotation:Set in Central Otago this novel follows the relationship between 62 year-old Edwin and 22 year-old Matilda, as Edwin uncovers the story of his mother's death 50 years ago. Edwin + Matilda featured on 'best book' lists in the NZ Listener and Sunday Star Times and was runner-up in the fiction category of the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.
Annotation:Janet Frame is NZ’s most distinguished writer, and Owls Do Cry is probably her best known work. Set in pre-1940s provincial NZ, it's a powerful and moving story about a family. Frame's books are epitomized by her richness of language and poetry. There are also frequent themes of poverty and alienation, mental illness and death.
Annotation:Maurice Gee writes widely – crime, general fiction, children’s and young adults' fiction. His novels often feature a sense of tension and conflict in a well-developed narrative. In My Father’s Den was made into an excellent movie.
Annotation:Patricia Grace is a fine storyteller who deals with issues of Maoridom. She has several collections of short stories as well as novels like Potiki and Tu.
Annotation:Charlotte Grimshaw is a younger contemporary writer. Her short story collection Singularity won the 2008 Montana Book Award.
Annotation:Mostly set in a very real Christchurch, this suspenseful Fantasy successfully mixes teenage struggles with Maori legend and mythology. An excellent read for both adults and teens.
Annotation:Controversial winner of the 1985 Booker Prize. Set on the rugged South Island beaches, Hulme cleverly entwines Maori myth with Christian symbolism. Possibly not for the light-hearted reader!
Annotation:Witi Ihimaera was the first Maori writer to publish a novel and short stories. He writes extensively about Maori life, as well as historical fiction and gay fiction. Whale Rider is probably his best-known book and wa made into an internationally acclaimed film.
Annotation:This historical novel is about first contact between Maori and European peoples. In 1834 Betty Guard steps ashore in Sydney to a heroine’s welcome, her survival during a four-month kidnapping ordeal amongst Taranaki Maori hailed as nothing short of a miracle. But what really happened? Based on real events, this is a compelling story of a marriage, of love and duty, and the quest for freedom in a pioneering age.
Annotation:A 'modern gothic' novel which shifts between Victorian and contemporary New Zealand, and covers everything from high-country farming to taxidermy to tattooing. Well reviewed.
Annotation:Koea has a deliciously wicked sense of humour, and many of her novels deal with the foibles of NZ culture.
Annotation:In a world where select people can enter "The Place" and find dreams of every kind to share with others for a fee, a fifteen-year-old girl is training to be a dreamhunter when her father disappears, leaving her to carry on his mysterious mission. An award-winning Fantasy novel set in a fictional land that nevertheless has strong overtones of New Zealand 'place'.
Annotation:Kate Langdon is an Auckland-based novelist who writes feisty and funny chick-lit. Also check out her other novel Making Lemonade.
Annotation:In 1878, a young Italian fisherman sails to NZ to begin a new life in this historical novel based on the lives of Lay's paternal great-grandparents, Alice and Luigi Berretti. The novel is about the love affair and struggles of a pair of very different people who meet in a new country hoping for a new beginning.
Annotation:Classic chick-lit about a woman who follows a prospective husband back to his native New Zealand, and all the things that happen to her along the way.
Annotation:Master of the short story, Marshall's tales usually convey a strong sense of NZ culture and psyche.
Annotation:Based on a murder in New Brighton and set in 1981, year of the Springbok tour, this is a New Zealand many of us will recognise. Nixon has also recently written Settler's Creek, dealing with the cultural conflict between Pakeha and Maori funeral rites.
Annotation:This hugely popular historical novel is set in the isolated coal-mining town of Denniston, once the primary coal producer for New Zealand, now a ghost town. It has been said that Pattrick's huge success is due to her ability to write accessible historical fiction.
Annotation:A first-year Otago University student's life quickly spirals out of control in this gritty novel. Shuker pushes "boundaries of style and character, provocatively mixing elements of satire, nihilism, and horror with ease."
Annotation:Essie Summers is New Zealand’s most well-known Mills and Boon writer . She writes old fashioned love stories frequently set in NZ’s high country.
Annotation:Sam Shepherd, a young sole-charge police constable, is the main character in a series of crime novels set in Southland and Dunedin.
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Description
We are frequently asked for 'the great Kiwi novel'; that one book that sums up what's it's like to live in New Zealand. While we haven't yet found that 'one book', we have put together this list of New Zealand reads that we hope reflect aspects of Kiwi culture and society, both today and in the past. A Christchurch City Libraries list.
Genre Guide