The latest Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list, described by Steve Braunias
FICTION
1 Kāwai by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)
Huzzah to Monty Soutar, huzzah to his publishers, and huzzah to the three wise judges of the fiction prize at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand national book awards for including Kāwai on the longlist this week. His book has been a runaway bestseller, number one these past three, four months, as readers have flocked to his ambitious historical saga of Aotearoa before the coming of whitey. Historical novels have always been huge in New Zealand. There is a willing audience for tales of the 19th century colonisation project – big, sweeping melodramas of white settlers and their fortunes in a new land, the lives of white people written by white authors. Soutar has broken the old mould. He's captured a kind of zeitgeist, which has seen widespread interest and downright fascination with Māori history, with Māori stories told by Māori authors.
ReadingRoom has a free copy of Kāwai to giveaway in our weekly contest. To enter, email stephen11@xtra.co.nz with the subject line in screaming caps I WANT THIS NOVEL ABOUT AOTEAROA BEFORE THE COMING OF WHITEY and describe the best book you have ever read by a Māori author – alive or dead, any of the genders, working in any of the genres. Witi, Tayi, Patricia, Ranginui, Duffy, Becky, Whiti, Keri, Scotty and Stacey...So many others; and so many great titles. You can only choose one. The deadline is midnight, Monday February 6.
The cover should be nominated for an award, too.
2 The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
Naturally Chidgey's celebrated novel told by a magpie made it onto the Ockham longlist this week.
3 Harbouring by Jenny Pattrick (Penguin Random House, $36)
4 Eddy, Eddy by Kate de Goldi (Allen & Unwin, $29.99)
5 How to Loiter in a Turf War by Coco Solid (Penguin Random House, $28)
Naturally the author's blazingly inventive novel set in Auckland made it onto the Ockham longlist this week.
6 Kurangaituku by Whiti Hereaka (Huia Publishers, $35)
7 The Doctor's Wife by Fiona Sussman (David Bateman, $37.99)
A free copy of Sussman's crime novel was up for grabs in last week's ReadingRoom giveaway. The novel begins when the body of wealthy Tibbie Lamb is found, swirling at the base of Browns Bay in Auckland; to win a copy, readers were asked to describe the real-life New Zealand murder which has exercised the strongest fascination or horror or sense of injustice upon their mind. Many nominated the awful death of Grace Millane. The tragic disappearances of Jennifer Beard and Kirsa Jensen also resonated, as did the Lundy murders and the Thomas case; Di Trower nominated the horrifying murder of Emma Agnew by the unequivocally appalling Liam Reid. Di added, "Love your column and all your writing. We've met twice in Christchurch. Both times you were looking for Smiths Bookshop." Yes, that sounds like me – cheap (Smiths was a secondhand bookstore) and completely lost.
The winner is Lauren Sleeman of Wānaka. She nominated Minnie Dean, and wrote, "The ‘baby farmer’ they called her. The first and only woman to be hanged in NZ/Aotearoa. I first saw her unmarked grave when I was about seven. We biked all the way to the Winton cemetery, us kids, full of intrigue about her story.
"Murdering babies seemed the most horrific crime I could imagine at that age. Mum said Minnie Dean would put a hatpin in a baby’s fontanelle, into the brain, to kill them. It was beyond my child’s imagination to murder a baby at all, let alone in that merciless way.
"It wasn’t until I was older and understood the vagaries of life it became clear that her actions reflected a wider issue in the late 1800’s, namely the result of unwanted pregnancies for women and those who were unable to support their babies for one reason or another.
"Minnie Dean may have been a baby murderer but she was also fulfilling a shadowy role in society, helping women in difficult circumstances. Whether those women were innocent about what would happen to their babies when they were handed to Minnie Dean, or in some way had an inkling of what was really going on, it must have been a cruel and awful decision to make.
"Horrible fascination plus societal injustice all in one case."
8 The Pain Tourist by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press, $37.99)
9 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35)
10 The Lighthouse by Christopher Parker (Beacon Press, $34.99)
NON-FICTION
1 Wawata by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $30)
There was a refreshing sense that this year's judges of the fiction prize at the Ockham New Zealand book awards woke up and smelled the coffee, which is to say they recognised the power of popular genres such as historical fiction, crime novels, and scifi. These kinds of books traditionally get the bum's rush at literary awards. Fantastic to see a new, inclusive judging in 2023. But the non-fiction judges have pretty much stayed with ye olde stodge and yawn; there's no room for Wawata, no room for The Bookseller at the End of the World, no room for Straight Up, no room for books which lots of people bought and loved - with the sole, happy exception of Grand by Noelle McCarthy, the ninth biggest nonfiction bestseller of 2022. So great to see her memoir make it onto the Ockham longlist this week.
2 Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $30)
3 Simple Fancy by Margo Flanagan & Rosa Flanagan (Allen & Unwin, $45)
4 The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw (Allen & Unwin, $38.99)
5 Salad by Margo Flanagan & Rosa Flanagan (Allen & Unwin, $45)
6 Tikanga by Keri Opai (Upstart Press, $39.99)
7 Māori Made Easy Workbook 1/Kete 1 by Scotty Morrison (Penguin Random House, $25)
8 Māori Made Easy by Scotty Morrison (Penguin Random House, $38)
9 Straight Up by Ruby Tui (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
10 The Book of Feeling Blue by Gwendoline Smith (Allen & Unwin, $27.99)
New Zealand's best loved self-help quack writes, "Depression knows no bounds. It is oblivious to gender, race, age, religion, sexual orientation. Just try to understand and be kind." Her latest is set to sell its socks off – and set, too, to help.
Noticeable cover.
