Readers, I’m delighted to welcome our What Should I Read Next media production specialist Holly Wielkoszewskito the blog today. When I found out Holly was planning a trip to Aotearoa New Zealand—and visiting a ton of bookstores while she was there—I asked if she might consider contributing her firsthand experience to our literary tourism series. I’m so happy she said yes! I hope you enjoy this bit of armchair travel as much as I did. Welcome, Holly!– Anne
Aotearoa New Zealand*: the land of hobbits, sheep, rugby, and tramping (that’s long-distance hiking). This island nation is a bucket list destination for many. From its beautiful vistas to its rich Māori culture and history, Aotearoa New Zealand has no shortage of creative inspiration, which is reflected in their rich literary scene.
Well-known authors include Ngaio Marsh, considered one of the “Queens of Crime” (along with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers); Keri Hulme, whose novel The Bone People was the 1985 Booker Prize winner; beloved children’s author and Carnegie medal winner Margaret Mahy; and Witi Ihimaera, whose novel The Whale Rider was adapted into a 2002 film.
McLeods New Zealand
My husband and I first visited Aotearoa New Zealand in 2015 and fell in love with the county. The dramatic landscapes are truly as beautiful as promised, from the glaciers of the south island to the almost unbelievably green hillsides around the Hobbiton set in the north. The people we met were friendly, relaxed, and welcoming, and the lifestyle we observed embraced calm, community, and connection in a way I’ve since sought to emulate.
We recently had the chance to make a return visit and spend a few weeks on the North Island. I made it a priority to visit a few of the most-loved independent bookstores, bring home a few titles to enjoy, and as I always do when traveling, add a ton of titles to my to-be-read list. I hope my list inspires your own future travels to Aotearoa New Zealand, whether that’s in person or through the pages of some of these books.
Beattie & Forbes Booksellers
Here are sixteen stand-out titles that I’ve read, brought home with me, or discovered during my visits to four delightful independent bookstores on the North Island: Unity Books in Auckland, McLeod’s in Rotorua, and Beattie & Forbes and Wardini Books in Napier. Thanks to the wonderful booksellers at each destination who provided suggestions, as well as background on the titles and authors shared here. If you’ve read a book about Aotearoa New Zealand, I’d love to add it to my list: please share in the comments below!
* There’s a growing movement within New Zealand to formally adopt the te reo Māori (Māori language) name of the country, Aotearoa. While traveling in the country, I saw both used interchangeably and individually, as well as in a unified title: “Aotearoa New Zealand.” Thus, I am using “Aotearoa New Zealand” when referring to the country in this post.
Literary Tourism: Aotearoa New Zealand
Some links (including all Amazon links) are affiliate links. More details here.
This debut novel won the 2021 Adam Foundation Prize, and follows three generations of a rural family through ten interwoven stories. As they encounter change and navigate relationships, their lives are set against the backdrop of Aotearoa New Zealand—sheep, huts, peacocks, and more. This is a format I particularly enjoy, so I’m looking forward to stepping back into the rural landscape through Came's stories. More info →
I saw books by this Rotorua native on many bookstore shelves, so when the owner of McLeod’s suggested this title, I had to snag it. While I haven’t cracked it open just yet, it’s described as a Gone Girl-esque thriller that is set between an isolated Aotearoa New Zealand beach town and Melbourne, Australia. Evie is a teenage girl on the run, who can't trust the man who isn’t really her uncle, can’t remember what she might have done, and oh—Evie isn’t actually her real name. Pomare’s second novel In the Clearing is being adapted for Disney+, and I’m excited to see how it turns out. More info →
I was fascinated by the format of this myth retelling from the perspective of the “monster.” You read the first half as usual, then flip the book over and start from the back to read in the other direction. And you can start at either end! Kurangaituku, the bird woman, takes us on the journey of her extraordinary life—from the birds who sang her into being, to the arrival of the Song Makers and the change they brought to her world, and her life with Hatupatu and her death. This book won the Ockham New Zealand Book Award in 2022, and Hereaka has also written award-winning books for children and young adults. More info →
After visiting the Aotearoa New Zealand Maritime Museum and learning about the fascinating sea-going history of the island nation, this book seemed like a perfect pick to enjoy a fictional maritime adventure. Set in 1866, a three-masted sailing ship full of illicit gold is wrecked and leaves only fifteen survivors. The castaways must work together to survive, while navigating the secrets they each have and a resentment against the lone surviving woman. The publisher calls it “a vivid imagining of the story behind the enduring mystery of one of [Aotearoa] New Zealand’s early shipwrecks.” More info →
I'm an outlier here in MMD land because I don’t really love complex family dramas, and this book has that in spades, while also being a gritty crime novel. It was the best-selling Aotearoa New Zealand novel in 2020 and 2021, and as a 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Award winner, it’s sure to be a great pick for readers who seek out this genre! Told from several perspectives, it’s been described as raw, sublime, and masterfully written. Sensitive readers should know that many reviewers mention the gang violence which is starkly written on the page. More info →
The cover of this book got me halfway to buying it, and once I discovered that the author owns a local bookstore in Napier, I was hooked. Based on the author’s own Dungeons & Dragons wizard Tarquin the Honest, this story follows the scoundrel of a wizard on a perilous quest to recover The Golden Gauntlet for a mysterious patron. I’ve never read any D&D inspired fiction before, although I'm a big fan of most fantasy, and so far this has been a fun and entertaining read. More info →
A fantastic exhibit at the Aotearoa New Zealand Maritime Museum featured a collection of stories about colonization: those who traveled from afar to start a new life, the Indigenous peoples who were displaced, and how they learned to live together. This novel explores some stories like these, tracing a Welsh family who came to seek a better life, an enslaved woman hoping for freedom and reunion, and the birth of the city of Wellington. Pattrick is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s well-known historical fiction writers, setting most of her works in locations throughout the country. More info →
Running two tiny bookshops at the end of the world sounds like the absolute perfect career, so I can’t wait to read this memoir from bookseller Ruth Shaw. (I actually traveled through Manapouri in 2015, and I'm sad I didn’t know about these tiny bookstores then. A reason to return? That works for me!) This is described as a funny and heartbreaking memoir about the people who visit Ruth’s bookstores and bittersweet stories from her life before bookshops, much of which took place at sea. More info →
A historical fantasy and love story that I can’t wait to read, this book follows one of the many young women who went to work in the farms when the men left to serve in the Second World War. Dorothea ‘Tea” Gray finds more than she expected while working on the dusty and remote farm, including a love that surprises her. This feminist, queer story was inspired by forgotten women’s history. Author Fitzwater was an Artist in Residence at The Christchurch Arts Centre 2021, and their short fiction has been published in multiple editions of the Year's Best Aotearoa and New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology. More info →
From memoirs like Tara Westover's Educated to fiction like Jonathan Evison’s Legends of the North Cascades, I’m always compelled by stories of isolation and survival. Chris Long's memoir is about his experience of growing up two days’ hike from the nearest road, on the west coast of the wild and rugged South Island. Born to parents committed to living a life away from capitalism and connected to the natural world, Chris shares his journey from a wild childhood to becoming a teenager wondering about the rest of the world, and finding his way as an adult chasing adventure while staying true to his roots. More info →
Aotearoa New Zealand is known for its outdoor beauty and adventures, so I had to add at least one hiking/outdoor memoir to this list. Gone Bush follows wanderer and long-distance tramper Paul Kilgour throughout a lifetime of walking the backcountry. He shares stories of the people he met in his travels, the 1200 huts he’s visited, and his end-to-end walk of the country. The publisher calls it a “charming, meandering, transportive read—like setting off on a serene tramp in the mountains, a heavy frost underfoot and the sun on your back.” I can't wait to read it. More info →
You can’t visit Aotearoa New Zealand without seeing an All Blacks or Black Ferns game on the screen, so this memoir by one of the top female players caught my eye. The daughter of a Samoan father and a mother with Irish/Scottish heritage, Ruby Tui overcame a difficult and unstable childhood to become an Olympic Champion and some say the world's best rugby sevens player. I know even less about rugby than I do other sports, so I’m eager to read Ruby’s story and learn more about the game that inspires such fiery fan adoration in so many. More info →
A celebrated memoir and winner of the Ockham New Zealand Book Award in 2016, this is the first of two volumes exploring Witi Ihimauera’s childhood and early life growing up as Māori. If you’ve seen the film The Whale Rider, it’s adapted from one of Ihimaera’s stories. I’m also planning to pick up a copy of his collection Navigating the Stars: Māori Creation Myths. More info →
I’m not a huge cookbook reader, but this one caught my eye. Aotearoa New Zealand native Nici Wickes became a household name in the country through her travel and cooking show World Kitchen. These are the recipes she turned to during lockdown in her cottage by the sea. In addition to food, she tackles topics like living solo, daily ocean swimming, menopause and middle age, and more. More info →
Esteemed Māori historian Soutar’s first novel follows a young Māori man through an epic historical adventure in pre-colonial Aotearoa New Zealand. Inspired by and tracing Soutar’s own ancestral line, the novel paints a picture of Aotearoa New Zealand from the mid-18th century through the first arrival of Europeans, exploring themes of colonization, indigenous culture, and the rich history of the island’s peoples. This is a doorstopper of a book and one I’ll seek out in digital format. More info →
I first saw this book featured on Unity Books Auckland's Instagram account and I’m so glad I brought it home with me! Māori author Michael Bennett’s debut novel, it follows Māori detective Hana Westerman as she balances a complicated family life, racial tensions, and career pressure while trying to hunt down Aotearoa New Zealand’s first serial killer. Set in and around Auckland, I was drawn in by the compelling story and the perspectives on history, colonization, and the echoes of violence across time. While it does feature a serial killer, I didn’t find it to be too graphic, and it kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through to the end. I hope there’s more from Bennett and Detective Westerman in the future! More info →
Which books set in Aotearoa New Zealand have you read and loved? Please tell us all about them in the comments section!
Holly Wielkoszewski is our What Should I Read Next Media Production Specialist. Her go-to genres are Fantasy and Sci-Fi. You can find Holly on Instagram @hollyfromthebigsky.
The only one I remember distinctly was a childhood YA novel called In Lane Three, Alex Archer.
It is a beloved favorite of mine, as a teen girl becomes a champion swimmer all while wrestling with the usual teen emotions and heart struggles 💔.
The Alex books (there are 4, but I think they were published as one in the US) are some of my favourite books ever, Tessa Duder really managed to put on the page how it felt to be a teenage girl.
Before we visited NZ, I read A River Rules My Life by Mona Anderson, about a young bride who moved in early 1940’s with her husband to a remote sheep station in the Southern Alps. Of course, in my imagination I had envisioned a beautiful remote area beyond a raging river. Our visit was everything I had imagined and more. Would love to go back.
If Queenstown is on your itinerary, then I would recommend ‘They Whisper in my Blood’ by Franciska Soares. It is a Portuguese-Indian love story full of second chances, set in exotic India and stunning Queenstown, NZ. A feel-good family saga it brings history, murder, humour, race, lust and love into uneasy and difficult tensions.
I’ve always been interested in visiting New Zealand. Beautiful place! Thanks for compiling this list. I love reading books that are set somewhere outside my usual reading locations: U.S. or U.K.
As an aside, I’m finding it strangely hard to get through the post as I keep stumbling over the name of the country! I’d never before heard of this movement to change this fellow Commonwealth country’s name. What’s in a name, they say? Intriguing.
Yes! I was fascinated and intrigued to see how the name is evolving. There was very little reference to Aotearoa when I was there in 2015, so it’s a big difference.
Aotearoa as always been the name of our country, but yes, it’s slowly becoming used more in tourism, international communications etc. That said, I owned a contemporary Māori tourism company in 2004-2011 and worked extensively with North American and European agents and I would say that they were all familiar with the name. Aotea means ‘cloud’ and Roa means ‘long’ – so when the first Polynesian navigators saw the landmass of our country the navigators wife is said to have said (with great relief) “Aotea roa!” Thus the country was named around 1000 years ago.
Aotearoa is the name of our country, and always has been. New Zealand is the name given to it when it was stolen by colonizers. Thus, the name is not being ‘changed’, but returned to it’s correct name.
In terms of ‘stumbling over’ the word Aotearoa, as with any new and foreign words, sometimes it takes a couple of goes, but once you’ve got it, you’ve got it! The Māori dictionary site has a good pronunciation audio clip if you hit the speaker icon on this page: https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/270
Any suggestions for Nepal? I’m traveling there in a few months. “We Measure The Land With Our Bodies” is the book I just finished, and I’d love to read more!
Oh, I’d love to go to Nepal and would also love any suggestions for Nepal books! The closest I’ve come is a handful of Everest climbing memoirs. Have a great trip!
Okay, Holly, I did not have New Zealand on my radar at all and maybe will never get there BUT these books are just the very kind I like to read! I’ve saved several of these for my TBR! Thank you for sharing. Belle
Air New Zealand always has a great Black Friday airfare sale. Take a look – it might be workable for you! We’ve been there twice; it’s one of my favorite places in the world.
Two books I enjoyed: “Aunt Dimity Down Under” by Nancy Atherton. This cozy mystery heroine goes to New Zealand to find someone. It didn’t take long for me to get out a NZ map so I could follow her travels.
“Reeling” by Sarah Stonich writes a series about a professional fisherwoman who becomes the host on a PBS station. She interviews her guest while they fish…sort of an OPRAH on water. In “Reeling” the program goes to NZ to film fascinating stories of people and places. I am a new fan of this Minnesota author.
We traveled around NZ in 2010, and have wanted to return ever since. Many of these titles interest me; unfortunately, my library system does not have most of them.
I don’t have any relevant travel plans but I read Aue last month and found it to be unusual, fascinating and well written. It is a trauma story so proceed with caution if that isn’t your jam.
Aue was one of my ‘best books’ of 2021, I have recommended it endlessly. Yes, it is a traumatic story but a very important one, especially for New Zealanders who need to know the full extent of life here, not just our own little bubbles. I think of it as being this time’s Once Were Warriors, another important A.N.Z book by Alan Duff (also can be traumatising, so the caution applies there too).
Kiwis Might Fly by Polly Evans is a delightful travelogue by a woman who travels NZ on a motorcycle, wanting to experience manual sheep sheering (and so many other things!). Laughed out loud at many of her experiences, as she explored both the North and South islands of this beautiful country.
Thanks for this wonderful list of books. I’m lucky enough to live in Aotearoa NZ and haven’t read any of the books on your list, so this sounds like a great list to work through in 2023 🙂
I’m also lucky enough to call Aotearoa home and this list includes many of my favourite reads from this year and last, plus a few n my TBR and one or two I’d not heard of. Another that I’d highly recommend is The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. It set in the South Island in the 1860s and won the Booker in 2013.
Whale Rider is one of my favorite books, and I adore the movie too. I read/watched it as a young teen and it has stayed with me ever since. Someday I hope to visit New Zealand! I definitely want to see Hobbiton.
What a fantastic list! I am a bookseller in Sydney, and I adored The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw. I have only visited Aotearoa NZ twice, but I look forward to traveling across the pond more frequently in the future.
I live in Christchurch, ANZ. Another book I would highly recommend is The Tally Stick by Carl Nixon. So nice to read all of the comments. ANZ truly is a paradise.
Thank you for compiling this interesting post. One of my IRL Bookclubs read a memoir entitled “An Olive Grove at the Edge of the World” by Jared Gulian. An American M-M couple build a new life in rural New Zealand, on a hobby farm. It was so interesting, as well as humourous, figuring it all out as they went along. And the carrot cake recipe is outstanding.
What about romance books? I have very much enjoyed the books by Rosalind James. The Escape to New Zealand series is great. (I haven’t loved her most recent series as much). Nailing Singh is also a New Zealand writer and while she mostly writes romance sci-fi/fantasy, last year she wrote a thriller called Quiet in her Bones. I’d say comparable to Jane Harper.
I’m going to look into these books on your list. So many are new to me. And maybe one day I will get to Aotearoa New Zealand.
What a great list! Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was an important figure in the Modernist movement and some of her best-loved short stories are set in Aotearoa, where she was born and raised. These include two of her longer stories, ‘Prelude’ (first published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press in 1918) and ‘At the Bay.’ The house in which Mansfield was born is now a museum celebrating her life and creative legacy – Katherine Mansfield House & Garden in Wellington. Do come visit us next time you’re in New Zealand! You can also visit Janet Frame’s childhood home in Oamaru and the house Ngaio Marsh lived in all her life in Christchurch.
I’m a Croatian living in ANZ and have read many books from this list.
I would recommend other books by Jenny Pattrick (Denniston Rose, Inheritance,Landing), A land of Two Halves by J.Bennett, Life on Gorge River, so many books about life on lighthouses ( I read them all, and have visited some of the lighthouses), and oh and so many more books… ANZ is a truly beautiful country and these books help to understand its people and this Land of the Long White Cloud
I know I’m soooo late to commenting here but can’t stop myself after todays Instagram post 😂 for a completely different style to all the books listed above can I recommend Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly, this gives Mary H K Choi vibes, thoroughly entertaining and an amazing amble through Auckland by a local the way Mary does with NYC. Tim te maro and the heartsick subterranean blues by H.S. Valley is like if boyfriend material, the last graduate and Carry on had a baby and is set in a made up magic school under fox glacier in the South Island. SO FUN. And H G Parry writes fantasy, her book the unlikely escape of Uriah heep includes lots of famous literary characters escaping their book worlds and causing chaos in Wellington. Highly recommend all 3 of these!!! ❤️❤️❤️
If anyone has children anything by Lynley Dodd is worth reading. Love her ‘Slinky Malinky’ and ‘Hairy McLary’ series. Beautiful rhythm and rhyme and complex vocabulary. If you visit Wellington ‘The Children’s Bookshop’ in Kilbirnie is worth a visit. Totally second all your wonderful recommendations.
We appreciate a good conversation in the comments section. Whether we’re talking about books or life, differing opinions can enrich a discussion when they’re offered for the purpose of greater connection and deeper understanding, which we whole-heartedly support. However, my team and I will delete comments that are hurtful or intended to shame members of this community, particularly if they are left by first-time commenters. We have zero tolerance for hate speech or bigotry of any kind. Remember that there are real people on the other side of the screen. We’re grateful our community of readers is characterized by kindness, curiosity, and thoughtfulness. Thank you for helping us keep it that way.
Find your next read with:
100 Book recommendations for every mood
Plus weekly emails with book lists, reading life tips, and links to delight avid readers.
49 comments
The only one I remember distinctly was a childhood YA novel called In Lane Three, Alex Archer.
It is a beloved favorite of mine, as a teen girl becomes a champion swimmer all while wrestling with the usual teen emotions and heart struggles 💔.
Ooh, I’ll have to check that one out!
The Alex books (there are 4, but I think they were published as one in the US) are some of my favourite books ever, Tessa Duder really managed to put on the page how it felt to be a teenage girl.
I did not know that this would be a country that I’d would love to visit. Thanks for an incredible list of books.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Before we visited NZ, I read A River Rules My Life by Mona Anderson, about a young bride who moved in early 1940’s with her husband to a remote sheep station in the Southern Alps. Of course, in my imagination I had envisioned a beautiful remote area beyond a raging river. Our visit was everything I had imagined and more. Would love to go back.
Oh, that sounds like a great story!
If Queenstown is on your itinerary, then I would recommend ‘They Whisper in my Blood’ by Franciska Soares. It is a Portuguese-Indian love story full of second chances, set in exotic India and stunning Queenstown, NZ. A feel-good family saga it brings history, murder, humour, race, lust and love into uneasy and difficult tensions.
I’ve always been interested in visiting New Zealand. Beautiful place! Thanks for compiling this list. I love reading books that are set somewhere outside my usual reading locations: U.S. or U.K.
As an aside, I’m finding it strangely hard to get through the post as I keep stumbling over the name of the country! I’d never before heard of this movement to change this fellow Commonwealth country’s name. What’s in a name, they say? Intriguing.
Yes! I was fascinated and intrigued to see how the name is evolving. There was very little reference to Aotearoa when I was there in 2015, so it’s a big difference.
Aotearoa as always been the name of our country, but yes, it’s slowly becoming used more in tourism, international communications etc. That said, I owned a contemporary Māori tourism company in 2004-2011 and worked extensively with North American and European agents and I would say that they were all familiar with the name. Aotea means ‘cloud’ and Roa means ‘long’ – so when the first Polynesian navigators saw the landmass of our country the navigators wife is said to have said (with great relief) “Aotea roa!” Thus the country was named around 1000 years ago.
Thanks so much for sharing this Melissa! It’s so neat to learn more about your country and its history.
Aotearoa is the name of our country, and always has been. New Zealand is the name given to it when it was stolen by colonizers. Thus, the name is not being ‘changed’, but returned to it’s correct name.
In terms of ‘stumbling over’ the word Aotearoa, as with any new and foreign words, sometimes it takes a couple of goes, but once you’ve got it, you’ve got it! The Māori dictionary site has a good pronunciation audio clip if you hit the speaker icon on this page: https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/270
I am finally traveling to Italy for two weeks in April 2023. Any book suggestions for me? I did recently read Eternal by Lisa Scottoline.
There are a few titles that feature Italy in this list, Dana—you might find a good read here! https://modernmrsdarcy.com/vicarious-vacation-books/
Have an amazing time.
Any suggestions for Nepal? I’m traveling there in a few months. “We Measure The Land With Our Bodies” is the book I just finished, and I’d love to read more!
Oh, I’d love to go to Nepal and would also love any suggestions for Nepal books! The closest I’ve come is a handful of Everest climbing memoirs. Have a great trip!
Nancy Atherton’s “Aunt Dimity Down Under” takes you on a tour to New Zealand from north to south, and invites the reader to go there, soon!
Oh, this sounds fun!
My husband and I are going to A.N.Z. next year. You’ve given me some ideas on what to read before we go. Thanks!
Okay, Holly, I did not have New Zealand on my radar at all and maybe will never get there BUT these books are just the very kind I like to read! I’ve saved several of these for my TBR! Thank you for sharing. Belle
Air New Zealand always has a great Black Friday airfare sale. Take a look – it might be workable for you! We’ve been there twice; it’s one of my favorite places in the world.
Two books I enjoyed: “Aunt Dimity Down Under” by Nancy Atherton. This cozy mystery heroine goes to New Zealand to find someone. It didn’t take long for me to get out a NZ map so I could follow her travels.
“Reeling” by Sarah Stonich writes a series about a professional fisherwoman who becomes the host on a PBS station. She interviews her guest while they fish…sort of an OPRAH on water. In “Reeling” the program goes to NZ to film fascinating stories of people and places. I am a new fan of this Minnesota author.
We traveled around NZ in 2010, and have wanted to return ever since. Many of these titles interest me; unfortunately, my library system does not have most of them.
I don’t have any relevant travel plans but I read Aue last month and found it to be unusual, fascinating and well written. It is a trauma story so proceed with caution if that isn’t your jam.
Aue was one of my ‘best books’ of 2021, I have recommended it endlessly. Yes, it is a traumatic story but a very important one, especially for New Zealanders who need to know the full extent of life here, not just our own little bubbles. I think of it as being this time’s Once Were Warriors, another important A.N.Z book by Alan Duff (also can be traumatising, so the caution applies there too).
Kiwis Might Fly by Polly Evans is a delightful travelogue by a woman who travels NZ on a motorcycle, wanting to experience manual sheep sheering (and so many other things!). Laughed out loud at many of her experiences, as she explored both the North and South islands of this beautiful country.
Thanks for this wonderful list of books. I’m lucky enough to live in Aotearoa NZ and haven’t read any of the books on your list, so this sounds like a great list to work through in 2023 🙂
I’m also lucky enough to call Aotearoa home and this list includes many of my favourite reads from this year and last, plus a few n my TBR and one or two I’d not heard of. Another that I’d highly recommend is The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. It set in the South Island in the 1860s and won the Booker in 2013.
I loved “The Bone People” by Keri Holme. It won the Booker prize, so I am not alone.
I spent three wonderful weeks there about 15 years ago. The only downside is the VERY long plane ride to get there.
Whale Rider is one of my favorite books, and I adore the movie too. I read/watched it as a young teen and it has stayed with me ever since. Someday I hope to visit New Zealand! I definitely want to see Hobbiton.
Essie Summers! They are older, but still so great!
As a Canadian living in Aotearoa, I was very excited to read this post. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton is a book I would add to the list.
A Quiet Kitchen is a real gem. Kia kaha
The Good Life series by Merten Tait is very entertaining fiction! The first book, Year if the Fox is a great place to start!
What a fantastic list! I am a bookseller in Sydney, and I adored The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw. I have only visited Aotearoa NZ twice, but I look forward to traveling across the pond more frequently in the future.
I live in Christchurch, ANZ. Another book I would highly recommend is The Tally Stick by Carl Nixon. So nice to read all of the comments. ANZ truly is a paradise.
The series by Sarah Lark is great historical fiction. The first novel is “The Land of the Long White Cloud”.
Thank you for compiling this interesting post. One of my IRL Bookclubs read a memoir entitled “An Olive Grove at the Edge of the World” by Jared Gulian. An American M-M couple build a new life in rural New Zealand, on a hobby farm. It was so interesting, as well as humourous, figuring it all out as they went along. And the carrot cake recipe is outstanding.
“Teacher” by Sylvia Ashton Warner is a must. An exception; teacher of Maori children.
What about romance books? I have very much enjoyed the books by Rosalind James. The Escape to New Zealand series is great. (I haven’t loved her most recent series as much). Nailing Singh is also a New Zealand writer and while she mostly writes romance sci-fi/fantasy, last year she wrote a thriller called Quiet in her Bones. I’d say comparable to Jane Harper.
I’m going to look into these books on your list. So many are new to me. And maybe one day I will get to Aotearoa New Zealand.
Read anything by Owen Marshall whose short stories are masterful portraits of New Zealandness.
What a great list! Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was an important figure in the Modernist movement and some of her best-loved short stories are set in Aotearoa, where she was born and raised. These include two of her longer stories, ‘Prelude’ (first published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press in 1918) and ‘At the Bay.’ The house in which Mansfield was born is now a museum celebrating her life and creative legacy – Katherine Mansfield House & Garden in Wellington. Do come visit us next time you’re in New Zealand! You can also visit Janet Frame’s childhood home in Oamaru and the house Ngaio Marsh lived in all her life in Christchurch.
Thanks. It’s great to hear that you enjoyed ‘Tarquin the Honest’ – it is a fantastic cover. The sequel drops next year – title still up for debate 🙂
I’m a Croatian living in ANZ and have read many books from this list.
I would recommend other books by Jenny Pattrick (Denniston Rose, Inheritance,Landing), A land of Two Halves by J.Bennett, Life on Gorge River, so many books about life on lighthouses ( I read them all, and have visited some of the lighthouses), and oh and so many more books… ANZ is a truly beautiful country and these books help to understand its people and this Land of the Long White Cloud
I know I’m soooo late to commenting here but can’t stop myself after todays Instagram post 😂 for a completely different style to all the books listed above can I recommend Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly, this gives Mary H K Choi vibes, thoroughly entertaining and an amazing amble through Auckland by a local the way Mary does with NYC. Tim te maro and the heartsick subterranean blues by H.S. Valley is like if boyfriend material, the last graduate and Carry on had a baby and is set in a made up magic school under fox glacier in the South Island. SO FUN. And H G Parry writes fantasy, her book the unlikely escape of Uriah heep includes lots of famous literary characters escaping their book worlds and causing chaos in Wellington. Highly recommend all 3 of these!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for these recommendations!
If anyone has children anything by Lynley Dodd is worth reading. Love her ‘Slinky Malinky’ and ‘Hairy McLary’ series. Beautiful rhythm and rhyme and complex vocabulary. If you visit Wellington ‘The Children’s Bookshop’ in Kilbirnie is worth a visit. Totally second all your wonderful recommendations.
I’m from Christchurch New Zealand and love Eddy, Eddy by Kate de Goldi – set in post earthquake Christchurch