FICTION
ACT OF OBLIVION, by Robert Harris (Hutchinson Heinemann)
In this page-turning novel full of historical detail and atmosphere, the acclaimed author turns his attention to the greatest manhunt in the 17th century: the pursuit of the killers of King Charles I.
ALL THE BROKEN PLACES, by John Boyne (Doubleday)
Satisfying sequel to bestselling The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. An elderly widow has spent her life avoiding painful memories, but when a neighbouring child is in distress, she must risk being exposed.
ARMS & LEGS, by Chloe Lane (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Absorbing and unsettling novel, in which a Kiwi finds herself in Florida, a place of seemingly ever-present danger, with her husband and two-year-old. An exploration of how everyday family life conceals deeper, more disturbing currents.
THE AXEMAN’S CARNIVAL, by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Fantasy and brutal reality come together in Catherine Chidgey’s exhilarating new novel, set on a falling-down Central Otago sheep farm and narrated by a magpie.
BLISS MONTAGE, by Ling Ma (Text Publishing)
Surreal, disturbing and subversive, these stories from a brilliantly original writer tackle everything from the immigrant experience to redemption through to being buried alive.
BY THE GREEN OF THE SPRING, by Paddy Richardson (Quentin Wilson)
Fine historical novel brings to life linked stories: German nationals shamefully interned on Somes Island in WWI, and the changing lives of West Coast women finding their footing in a wider world.
THE COLONY, by Audrey Magee (Allen & Unwin)
Lyrical, sensory novel, centring on an English artist and a French linguist who arrive on an island off the west coast of Ireland, which is also an allegorical exploration of Britain’s fraught involvement in the country.
DEMON COPPERHEAD, by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber)
Kingsolver’s Dickens-inflected latest examines a dangerously flawed US foster system and the devastating effects of the opioid epidemic, narrated by a lovable racially mixed orphan boy.
EDDY, EDDY by Kate De Goldi (Allen & Unwin)
Set in post-quake Christchurch, a comingof-age love story and an exploration of profound grief viewed through a kaleidoscopic lens.
ELIZABETH FINCH, by Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape)
A slim novel of crisp prose and quirkily real characters that tackles big ideas, like truth, art and the nature of memory, as a man reminisces about an intellectual love affair.
FRENCH BRAID, by Anne Tyler (Penguin)
Wise, subtle novel of generations, domestic but not narrow, full of
