The Secrets of Strangers by Charity Norman

$32.99 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction

Five strangers, one cafe - and the day that everything changed. A regular weekday morning veers drastically off-course for five strangers whose paths cross in a London cafe - their lives never to be the same again when an apparently crazed gunman holds them hostage. But there is more to the situation th an first meets the eye and as the captives grapple with their own inner demons, the line between right and wrong starts to blur. Will the secrets they keep stop them from escaping with their lives? A compelling, tense and heartfelt drama from the writer of the bestselling See You In September. ...Show more

Jerningham by Cristina Sanders

$37.00 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction

"Edward Jerningham Wakefield was the wild-child of the Wakefield family that set up the New Zealand Company to bring the first settlers to this country. His story is told through the eyes of bookkeeper Arthur Lugg, who is tasked by Colonel William Wakefield to keep tabs on his brilliant but unstable nep hew. As trouble brews between settlers, government, missionaries and Māori over land and souls and rights, Jerningham is at the heart of it, blurring the line between friendship and exploitation and spinning the hapless Lugg in his wake. Alive with historical detail, Jerningham tells a vivid story of Wellington's colonial beginnings and of a charismatic young man's rise and inevitable fall"--Back cover. ...Show more

Victory Park by Rachel Kerr

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction

Kara lives in Victory Park council flats with her young son, just making a living by minding other people’s kids – her nightly smoke on the fire escape the only time she can drop her guard and imagine something better. But the truth is life is threadbare and unpromising until the mysterious Bridget move s in to the Park. The wife of a disgraced Ponzi schemer, she brings with her glamour and wild dreams and an unexpected friendship. Drawn in, Kara forgets for a moment who she’s there to protect. “A rich, funny, compassionate exploration of care and carelessness — this is a wonderful book — like its heroine, astute as hell and full of heart.”  Emily Perkins ...Show more

Addressed to Greta by Fiona Sussman

$34.99 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction

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-chemicals shop just one of the many compromises she’s had to make. She has embarrassingly big feet and a pet chicken named Marilyn Monroe, but who is she really? Even Greta has no idea. So, when she receives a call from a lawyer acting on behalf of her dear friend Walter, Greta finds herself presented with a terrifying, though compelling, opportunity. Walter’s bequest, sees Greta embark on a mystery journey, each destination revealed in a letter on the eve of her departure. ADDRESSED TO GRETA is a captivating novel about a woman learning how to express her true self. It is an important story about finding the courage to be seen, and a testament to the transformative power of friendship. ...Show more

Auē (Aue) by Becky Manawatu

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction

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 that killed his father and sent his mother into hiding, and the shame he feels about abandoning his eight-year-old brother to another violent home. But Arama is braver than he looks, and he has a friend and his friend has a dog, and the three of them together might just be strong enough to turn back the tide of sorrow. As long as there's aroha to give and stories to tell and a good supply of plasters. Here is a novel that is both raw and sublime, a compelling new voice in New Zealand fiction. Haere mai, Becky Manawatu. ...Show more

Huia Short Stories 13: Contemporary Maori Fiction

$25.00 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction | Reading Level: very good

Here are the best short stories from the Pikihuia Awards for Māori writers 2019 as judged by Scotty Morrison, Robyn Bargh, Tuehu Harris, Whiti Hereaka, Poia Rewi and Carol Hirschfeld. This competition, run by the Māori Literature Trust and Huia Publishers, is held every two years to promote Māori write rs and their work. This year, the awards sought short fiction from first-time, emerging and published writers in te reo Māori and English. The competition attracts several hundred entries each year from writers of all ages and those who are starting out to seasoned authors. This collection of finalists’ fiction celebrates Māori writing, introduces new talent and gives an opportunity for Māori writers to shine. The stories are: Murray's Special Day by Tracey Andersen, Tunnelling by Cassandra Barnett, Botched by Marino-Moana Begmen, Para Pounamu by Pine Campbell, Tangaroa Pūkanohi Nui by Hineteahurangi Merenape Durie Ngata, Storked by Paipa Edmonds, Tiakina! Tiakina! by Tiahomarama Fairhall, Mumsy by Olivia Aroha Giles, Rocket Ship Pyjamas and Plum Jam by Olivia Aroha Gile,s Kokiri ki mua - Charge forward! by K M Harris, My Three Friends at School by Josh Hema, The Pledge by Nadine Hura, Dust by Kelly Joseph, The School of Life by Lauren Keenan, Tina's Coming on Tuesday by Lauren Keenan, Ko te Ao tō Marae by Hēmi Kelly, Just Holden Together by Colleen Maria Lenihan, One of the Good Ones by Moira Lomas, Aunty's Teeth by Annette Morehu, Te Kai a te Rangatira, he Mahi by Zeb Nicklin, Te Kurī Hīroki o te Āporo Nui by Zeb Nicklin, The Guises of Death Kahuru Pumipi, The Bartender by Michelle Rahurahu Scott, White Sheep by Penny Smits, Whakaurupā Taku Aroha by Amiria Stirling, No te uku - From the Clay by Bronwyn Te Koeti ...Show more

The Sound of Breaking Glass by Kirsten Warner

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction

'I am driving up the Curran Street on-ramp and ahead of me Milk Bottle Man is dashing up the safety railing on the Harbour Bridge. He jumps onto the superstructure and runs up to the national flag. He is jumping from foot to foot and holding two figures in each hand – they must be the size of real peopl e but look like toys because he is vastly inflated and up so high. Each swing of his giant arm, although it looks slow from a distance, would have enough force to dislodge the brains inside those skulls.’  Christel is at shattering point. She’s got two small children, her job in reality television is super high stress, she’s an activist with Women Against Surplus Plastic and now she’s being stalked. To top it off her protest milk bottle sculpture appears to have come to life like the golem of Jewish folklore and is reviving characters from a past she can hardly bear to confront.  Christel is Second Generation – her father was a Holocaust survivor and a refugee to New Zealand after the war – and she cannot focus on the problems in front of her without dealing with an inheritance th​at is both​​ murky and unresolvable. And how to live with ​the secrets she begins to uncover?  Set in Auckland in the 1990s, The Sound of Breaking Glass is that rare thing – a book that crackles with end-of-millennium urban life ​while vib­rating with a history that’s impossible to forget. ...Show more

Girl of Shadows (Convict Girls #2) by Deborah Challinor

$24.99 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction | Series: Convict Girls

The adventures of the transported convict women continue in this stunning sequel to Behind the Sun. Philippa Gregory meets Bryce Courtenay as Sydney's history comes vividly to life. What had they done? What had she and Sarah and Friday done? 1830: Convict girls Friday Woolfe, Harriet Clarke and Sarah Mo rgan have been transported to Sydney from London. Sarah has been assigned to jeweller Adam Green, Harriet is a maid for the Barrett family, and Friday is working as a prostitute in a brothel. Each of them is struggling to forget the brutal crime they committed. But their fate is no longer theirs to control. Vicious underworld queen Bella Jackson holds the girls' futures in the palm of her hand, biding her time until she exacts payment for what she knows about their misdeeds. Harriet, racked with guilt, becomes convinced that their lost friend is haunting them, and while Friday succumbs to the bottle, Sarah has to fight for everything she holds dear. Once again, the girls must join forces to save one of their own. But which one? And in the background Bella Jackson waits and watches ...Praise for Deborah Challinor: 'Challinor is a good storyteller; her characters have depth and her historical backdrops are well researched, seamlessly joining fact and fiction and creating a convincing, atmospheric yarn' Bookseller + Publisher 'Seamlessly fuses historical fact and engrossing fiction' Queensland times ...Show more

Purgatory by Rosetta Allan

$30.00 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction | Reading Level: Very Good

'"You don't want to be digging there," Ma says like he can hear her. No one can hear her, just us boys. We're the dead Finnegans - Ma, Thomas, Ben and me.' Ten-year-old John Finnegan can't leave his garden. Ever since they were murdered he, his brothers and his ma have been stuck there, caught between t he worlds of the living and the dead. Unseen and unnoticed, he watches the events after his life unfold - including the actions of his murderer. James Stack is born dirt-poor on an Irish tenant farm and the great famine shadows his childhood. But his clever sister's lace making may save the family - until Aileen is sent to the other side of the world on a convict ship. To save her, James joins the redcoats and follows her across dangerous waters to a hopeful new land. But can he ever leave the death and hunger of his homeland behind? Based on the 1865 Otahuhu murders, Purgatory is a startling, gripping novel from an immensely talented new author. ...Show more

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

$28.00 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction | Reading Level: near fine

Now a major television series. Winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize, a breathtaking feat of storytelling where everything is connected, but nothing is as it seems.... It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky. Eleanor Catton was only 22 when she wrote The Rehearsal, which Adam Ross in the New York Times Book Review praised as "a wildly brilliant and precocious first novel" and Joshua Ferris called "a mesmerizing, labyrinthine, intricately patterned and astonishingly original novel." The Luminaries amply confirms that early promise, and secures Catton''''s reputation as one of the most dazzling and inventive young writers at work today. ...Show more

Max Gate by Damien Wilkins

$9.99 NZD

$30.00 (66% off)

Category: NZ Fiction | Reading Level: Good - Very Good

It’s 1928 and the world’s most famous novelist, Thomas Hardy, is dying in the upstairs room of Max Gate, the house he built in his beloved Dorset. Downstairs, his high-powered literary friends are becoming locked in a bitter fight with local supporters. Who owns Hardy’s remains? Who knew the great man b est? What are the secrets of Max Gate? Nellie Titterington, a maid at the house, narrates this earthy and emotionally-charged novel about a world of ambition, duty, belonging and love. ...Show more

Second Chances by Charity Norman

$24.99 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction

A rich and warm novel of family, divided loyalties and complicated relationships - for readers who love Jodi Picoult or Caroline Overington. In the quiet of a winter's night, the rescue helicopter is sent to airlift a five-year-old boy with severe internal injuries. He's fallen from the upstairs veranda h of an isolated farmhouse, and may not last the next few hours. At first, Finn's fall looks like a horrible accident; after all, he's prone to sleepwalking. Only his frantic mother, Martha McNamara, knows how it really happened. And she isn't telling. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Martha only wants the best for her family. That's why she moved heaven and earth to move them to the other side of the world, to start their lives afresh. And now she's faced with decisions she never dreamed she'd have to make, decisions with potentially devastating consequences. She's torn between her loyalty to her family and her need to protect them. What do you do when your dream escape turns into a nightmare - and is there ever a way back? ...Show more