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NZ Herald
21-06-2025
- Politics
- NZ Herald
Top 10 bestselling NZ books: June 21
1. (1) A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin) The former PM's memoir, the first such account since Jim Bolger, tops the bestsellers for a second week, and is unlikely to be dislodged for some time. It also holds the No 3 spot in this week's New York Times hardcover nonfiction chart (beaten only by a book on national economies and the benefits of owning a dog). Ardern's book has generally found favour among reviewers, including Henry Cooke for the Listener. He thought it intimate and fluent, 'compulsively readable, easily consumable in two or three sittings, and often very funny', even if it barely explained her government's policy decisions. 'Ardernism was always more a sensibility than a full ideology. It was a way of looking at the world and reacting to it, not a theory of change.' Cooke says 'there are some hints, near the end of the book, that perhaps she isn't so certain quitting was the right idea … There is little attempt to engage with the arguments against the latter half of the Covid period, when MIQ's usefulness looked shaky and vaccine mandates radicalised thousands of people.' Tracy Watkins, editor of The Post and Sunday Star-Times, agreed the book let us into some of Ardern's emotional highs and lows. 'We also gain some fresh insight into her own personal mechanisms for coping with such momentous events as the terror attack, and Covid. But we don't learn a lot more about what was going on behind closed doors within her government, which must, at times, have been under enormous strain.' The Guardian considered it 'an emotionally rich and candid read, [but] the downside of skipping the political detail is that it's hard to get a sense of how exactly her astonishing early popularity ebbed away'. Tim Stanley of the Telegraph was more acerbic, writing that 'the practicalities of the job don't interest her: this book hinges on how everything felt'. The natural disaster at Whakaari White Island and the Christchurch mosque killings 'brought out Ardern's best: authoritative and sensitive, she has a fine temperament'. But she subtly vilified her opponents, he says: 'I am so kind that anyone who disagrees with me must be nasty; so reasonable that my critics must be nuts.' A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir, by Jacinda Ardern. Image / Supplied 2. (2) The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press) Ardern's memoir continues to hold out of the top spot Catherine Chidgey's latest novel, which tells the mysterious, ominous story of three boys in an alternative 1970s Britain. It's a 'tense, compelling, genre-fusing book', said Emma Neale in the Listener. 'There is the hint of submerged identity; of aspiration and prosperity, rubbing skins with disappointment and neglect; a preoccupation with what is authentic and what is fraudulent; the self and truth only dimly visible … Calling on the deeply rooted psychological power of the storytelling rule of three, the novel is divided into The Book of Dreams, The Book of Knowledge and The Book of Guilt. Three women, Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night, care for a set of 13-year-old triplets in an all-boys orphanage. There are three main narrative perspectives: Vincent, one of the triplets; the Minister of Loneliness, a government minister in charge of national care institutions known as the Sycamore Homes; and Nancy, a young girl kept in seclusion by fastidious older parents. This attention to pattern also coolly embodies the quest for order and control, the troubling obsession at the core of the fictional investigation.' The Book of Guilt, by Catherine Chidgey. Image / Supplied 3. (5) Whānau by Donovan Farnham & Rehua Wilson (Moa Press) This illustrated pocket hardback, ideal as a gift, aims to improve your te reo Māori one special phrase at a time. Donovan Te Ahunui Farnham and Rehua Wilson offer up dozens of expressions, often with metaphorical or proverbial origins, such as 'He toka tū moana' (stalwart) and 'Kei mate wheke' (never surrender). Whānau by Donovan Farnham and Rehua Wilson. Photo / Supplied 4. (3) Dr Libby Fix Iron First by Dr Libby (Little Green Frog) 'The one thing that changes everything,' reckons the subtitle of the latest book from Libby Weaver. Iron is essential for our health, and its lack is particularly common among girls and women. Menstruation, pregnancy and hormonal change can lead to iron deficiency, iron absorption can be an issue for some people, and it's often a trial to eat enough iron-rich foods. Weaver's new book Fix Iron First aims to address this. As her website, which also sells iron supplements made from organic peas, notes that low iron doesn't just make you tired. 'It can alter your brain chemistry, slow your metabolism, impact your thyroid, disturb your sleep and lower your emotional resilience. It affects how you think, how you feel, how you show up in the world – every single day.' Fix Iron First: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Dr Libby Weaver. Photo / Supplied 5. (RETURN) My Matariki Colouring and Activity Book by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Scholastic) A 96-page companion to Matariki Around the World from a couple of years back, it's a colouring-in book based around all aspects of the star cluster, with activity guides, word puzzles, drawing tips and some recipes, written with a sprinkling of te reo Māori. My Matariki Colouring & Activity Book by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White. Photo / supplied 6. (RETURN) See How They Fall by Rachel Paris (Moa Press) Sydney-set thriller from Auckland writer features a Succession-style family gathering in their retreat after the patriarch dies. Tragedy ensues and, as the Listener noted: 'the gilded family will fall … Some of the family will fall by dying. By poison. Others by other methods: loss of reputation, loss of fortune. Those golden sands turn out to be quick sand which swallows nasty rich people up. You have to applaud.' See How They Fall by Rachel Paris. Photo / Supplied 7. (6) The Bookshop Detectives: Tea and Cake and Death by Gareth and Louise Ward (Penguin) The bestselling Bookshop Detectives, owner of Sherlock Tomes, have another mysterious case to solve. From the publisher: 'In this rollicking new adventure, Garth and Eloise (and Stevie) must sniff out a prolific poisoner ahead of a vital fundraising event, the Battle of the Book Clubs. As time runs out and the body count rises, it seems the bad actors are circling closer to the people and places they care about. Could Pinter, the infamous serial killer from Eloise's past, somehow be involved? And when anyone could be a suspect, how can Garth and Eloise keep their customers, their small town and their beloved bookshop safe?' The Bookshop Detectives: Tea and Cake and Death by Gareth & Louise Ward. Photo / Supplied 8. (RETURN) Matariki Around the World by Miriama Kamo & Rangi Matamua & Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Scholastic) Stories from here and elsewhere about the constellation we know and celebrate as Matariki. Matariki Around the World, by Miriama Kamo & Rangi Mātāmua, with illustrations by Isabel Joy Te Aho-White. Photo / Supplied 9. (7) End Your Fight with Food by Claire Turnbull (A&U) From the publisher: 'We are bombarded with advice on what we should do to be healthier or lose weight, but making that happen feels overwhelming, if not impossible. This cycle of trying and 'failing' then leaves you stuck in frustration, shame and self-blame. 'In this compassionate and practical guide, nutritionist and wellbeing expert Claire Turnbull helps you break free from the struggle. She explains how our eating is influenced by our psychology, why diets often fail to deliver lasting results — and why willpower alone isn't the answer. Plus, she shows why focusing exclusively on the number on the scales can get in the way of truly looking after our health. 'Learn how to unpack your eating patterns and change your habits for good, so that you're eating in accordance with your health and wellbeing goals, rather than focusing on your weight. 'Beyond food, Claire shares the latest research on the key pillars of genuine wellbeing: nourishment, sleep, movement, relationships, managing stress and connecting with your purpose.' End Your Fight with Food by Claire Turnbull. Photo / Supplied 10. (NEW) Easy Weeknight Meals by My Food Bag & Nadia Lim (A&U) Tenth anniversary edition of this co-production with the meal-delivery company. From the publisher: 'Here is the solution to every cook's weeknight dilemma – what to cook tonight? Delicious, simple-to-follow, nutritious recipes that your family and friends will love from the My Food Bag team and Nadia Lim. These recipes have been rated as favourites by My Food Bag customers, so you can relax in the knowledge that each recipe is tasty, easy to make and foolproof. They're organised by season, and Nadia's background as a dietitian and her strong healthy food philosophy ensures that they are nutritionally balanced and good for you.' Easy Weeknight Meals by My Food Bag & Nadia Lim. Image / Supplied Source: NielsenIQ BookScan – week ending June 21.
The Spinoff
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending June 20
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books' stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60) Spot New Zealand's former prime minster on this week's New York Times bestseller list. 2 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) The un-put-downable alternate history that explores some of life's biggest questions, including what does it mean to have a soul? Can a human ever not have one? 3 Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (Serpents Tail, $30) Auckland really loves this hectic mother-son roadtrip novel. 4 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38) Everett's biggest book yet is his stunning, funny and profound retelling of Huckleberry Finn. 5 Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum (Bloomsbury, $25) Cosy and charming and perfect for a long Matariki weekend. 6 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26) This year's winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction. One of the most exquisite novels you'll read this year: it is moving, sexy and surprising. 7 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (4th Estate, $35) The smash hit novel based on a true crime story of a serial killer who lured her victims in with stunning food. 8 A Dim Prognosis by Ivor Popovich (Allen & Unwin, $38) An utterly gripping, energetic memoir from Dr Popovich. Revealing! See The Spinoff this weekend to read an excerpt from this brilliant book. 9 Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Random House, $38) Vuong's second novel. 10 King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby (Hachette, $38) A fiery crime novel. Here's the blurb: 'Roman Carruthers left the smoke and fire of his family's crematory business behind in his hometown of Jefferson Run, Virginia. He is enjoying a life of shallow excess as a financial adviser in Atlanta until he gets a call from his sister, Neveah, telling him their father is in a coma after a hit-and-run accident. When Roman goes home, he learns the accident may not be what it seems. His brother, Dante, is deeply in debt to dangerous, ruthless criminals. And Roman is willing to do anything to protect his family. Anything. A financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, Roman must use all his skills to try to save his family while dealing with a shadow that has haunted them all for twenty years: the disappearance of their mother when Roman and his siblings were teenagers. It's a mystery that Neveah, who has sacrificed so much of her life to hold her family together, is determined to solve once and for all. As fate and chance and heartache ignite their lives, the Carruthers family must pull together to survive or see their lives turn to ash. Because, as their father counselled them from birth, nothing lasts forever. Everything burns.' WELLINGTON 1 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60) 2 Towards Modernism: Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa by Justine Olsen (Te Papa Press, $75) This handsome new publication celebrates the Walter Cook Collection of Decorative Arts (held at Te Papa) and the ceramic, glass and metal objects therein. 3 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) 4 It's A Bit More Complicated Than That by Hannah Marshall (Allen and Unwin NZ, $25) A brilliant new YA novel from a huge new talent. Here's the blurb: 'Zelle and Callum used to be best friends, but they haven't spoken in three years: not since the tragedy that wrenched them apart, and Zelle moved away. But now Zelle is back, and their lives are about to get a whole lot more complicated. Zelle is in denial about her alcohol use that threatens to spiral out of control, and she's deeply annoyed at having to leave the city. Callum's future is thrown into jeopardy after both a disastrous uni interview and his budding romance turning sour. But they can't keep running from the past forever, and circumstances force them to examine their grief and guilt and find a way through.' 5 A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan (Allen and Unwin NZ, $37) 'Trevelyan's narrator is 10 years old. She's unnamed until the very end of the book (I won't reveal it here: best to find out for yourself). It's this naive perspective that makes A Beautiful Family both easy to read and impossible to put down. The narrator's innocence is pitted against several disturbing factors, all orbiting her summer in various shapes and shades, and it's that persistent dance of disturbances that creates the sustained and unrelenting tension in the novel.' Read more of Claire Mabey's review on The Spinoff, right here. 6 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26) 7 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) 'I don't want to say that Delirious is the pinnacle of what Damien can do because that would be like putting a curse on his future work. But I am going to say it's almost impossible for me to imagine how he could do better. I think this is a great book – Great with capital G.' Even before Delirious won this year's Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, Elizabeth Knox was rapturous about Wilkins' beautiful novel. 8 Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq (Scribe, $37) Shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. 'In the twelve stories of Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Published originally in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023, praised for their dry and gentle humour, these portraits of family and community tensions testify to Mushtaq's years as a journalist and lawyer, in which she tirelessly championed women's rights and protested all forms of caste and religious oppression. Written in a style at once witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating, it's in her characters – the sparky children, the audacious grandmothers, the buffoonish maulvis and thug brothers, the oft-hapless husbands, and the mothers above all, surviving their feelings at great cost – that Mushtaq emerges as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature, building disconcerting emotional heights out of a rich spoken style. Her opus has garnered both censure from conservative quarters as well as India's most prestigious literary awards; this is a collection sure to be read for years to come.' 9 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38) 10 The Māori Millionaire by Te Kahukura Boynton (Penguin, $35) 'Te Kahukura Boynton is Māori Millionaire, and her debut book is here to help. Learn how to make money by clearing debt, saving for an emergency, finding work and increasing your salary, and even starting your own business and investing in shares and yourself. With tips on building better habits with your money and your life, Māori Millionaire is the positive mindset change you might be missing.' So goes the blurb.
Irish Examiner
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Book review: How perspectives can vary
In previous works, New Zealand author Catherine Chigley has used a magpie for a narrator, and pondered Nazism from the point of view of a child. She is a skilled and inventive storyteller, and The Book of Guilt is another imaginative tour de force. 13-year-old identical triplets Vincent, William, and Lawrence are the sole remaining occupants of a remote Hampshire children's home. It's 1979, but an alternate one, changed significantly by the fact that Adolf Hitler was successfully assassinated in 1943. Thereafter, under the 'Gothenburg Treaty', governments cooperated to fast track medical and scientific progress, leading to remarkable breakthroughs. But they have done so by dubious means, even using research carried out in death camps by the Nazis. None of this is very clear to Vincent, William, and Lawrence, who live in isolation from the wider world and run wild in the gardens of their enclosure. With touching sincerity, the boys quote snippets from an encyclopaedia, the Book of Knowledge, which has been their only source of education. 'James Joyce,' Vincent declares boldly at one point, 'author remarkable for a style verging sometimes on incoherence'. Their only human connection is with three carers, Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon, and Mother Night, who feed and tend to the boys, record their dreams and administer daily medications. They are part of a government programme called the 'Sycamore Scheme', which appears to be winding down, and the boys' cherished dream is that they will be sent to Margate, the site, they are told, of an idyllic children's home. In this alternate 1970s, regrettable artefacts have survived, including Jeffrey Archer, Richard Clayderman, and Margaret Thatcher who, though never actually named, appears to have fulfilled her destiny and become prime minister. The only female member of her cabinet is the Minister of Loneliness, a harried, well-meaning woman who is sent to oversee an adoption programme for the Sycamore kids. The boys, meanwhile, wonder why they are shunned and pointed at by locals when they run errands in the nearby village, and why the pills they pop daily make them feel not better, but worse. And why did all the Sycamore kids' parents die so dramatically in house fires, car crashes, and shipwrecks? A trio of girls sent on a socialising date offer clues, but Vincent, meanwhile, is growing more and more worried about William's cruel streak. The Book of Guilt is narrated in turns by Vincent, the Minister of Loneliness, and a 13-year-old girl called Nancy, whose connection to the boys will slowly become apparent. Some early reviews have noted plotting similarities with Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, but while these are sometimes striking, Ms Chigley's narrative originality is never in doubt. She does a fine job of catching the imagined voice of an early teenage boy with a necessarily limited world view, and her imagery throughout is excellent. 'Diane wore spectacles that made her eyes too big,' Vincent remarks, 'like you couldn't get away from her.' With much to unfold, and many plot twists to hide, Catherine Chigley teases out her story with great skill, and there are some wonderfully chilling set piece moments, like a trip to Strangeways prison, and a beautifully orchestrated scene where the triplets are visiting potential adoptive parents and fall out spectacularly while playing. It's an entertaining and very nicely written book, but as ever with Ms Chigley there are serious issues rumbling beneath, for instance the ethics of scientific research, universal civil rights, and the arbitrary assumptions about who might and might not possess a soul.
The Spinoff
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
A Beautiful Family: a haunting summer holiday novel, reviewed
Claire Mabey reviews the novel about a New Zealand summer that caught the attention of one of the world's most famous agents and is being released in multiple countries, with a film adaptation attached already. Jennifer Trevelyan's pathway from unknown author to international name is a particularly compelling one. Media attention has been hot and close this past week as A Beautiful Family is released in Aotearoa, Australia, the US and UK. On RNZ's Nine to Noon, Trevelyan told Kathryn Ryan how she'd been writing away for a decade before she finally felt she had a manuscript worthy of sending out to an agent. Felicity Blunt – renowned literary agent – responded (for the uninitiated, this is notable in itself: it is extremely hard to get an agent, especially such a huge one) and the fairytale trajectory from hopeful scribbler to signed-up writer was set into motion. Blunt sold the book into multiple territories, secured Trevelyan a two-book deal, and sold the rights to the film, which already has Niki Caro down to direct. Trevelyan told Ryan that her one wish is that it is filmed in New Zealand. Without knowing anything about the novel, this is an extraordinary story. It is notoriously hard for New Zealand writers to crack the international market: not many manage to do it and certainly not via the pull power of Felicity Blunt, who represents Meg Mason, Jilly Cooper, Claire Keegan and Bonnie Garmus among others. It's the kind of dream-come-true that gives hopefuls just enough to plough on with. Though the chances of such a sequence of events happening again is so slim it's hard to imagine it repeating anytime soon. I received a limited edition advance proof of A Beautiful Family a few months ago with the number 137/150 handwritten on the promotional cover, which read 'if you only read one book in 2025 make it this one'. I have to admit that at this point in the game I'm skeptical of such commands. I get a lot of advance copies with grand promises and I don't read them all: that would be more than a full time job. I put the book in my pile and frankly forgot about it until a week ago when I was looking through my to-be-read piles trying to find something that I'd be able to read quickly, and that might hold my attention over a gloomy, frigid day in which I was stuck inside with a head cold. Enter, the child. Trevelyan's narrator is 10 years old. She's unnamed until the very end of the book (I won't reveal it here: best to find out for yourself). It's this naive perspective that makes A Beautiful Family both easy to read and impossible to put down. The narrator's innocence is pitted against several disturbing factors, all orbiting her summer in various shapes and shades, and it's that persistent dance of disturbances that creates the sustained and unrelenting tension in the novel. Child narrators aren't uncommon in adult literature but the decision to use them is fascinating to me. Catherine Chidgey's The Book of Guilt uses the perspective of three siblings to tell that sinister story; John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a famously affecting use of the child's perspective to tell a holocaust story – the adult reader immediately understanding what the child characters do not. This distance between the child narrator and the adult reader is where sickening suspense lies: as adults we know more than they do and all we have left is to hope that, in this story, we're wrong. A Beautiful Family is set on the Kāpiti Coast in the 1980s. We know this because Trevelyan is meticulous with her references to the time period: the child's prized possession is a Walkman through which she plays Split Enz; The Exorcist has aired on TV; there are Seventeen magazines with sealed sections; the child and her sister Vanessa get terrifically sunburned and only after getting blisters does their mother buy some SPF15. There is also casual racism at play in varying degrees of intensity. A Chinese family is talked about in grotesque terms; a Māori character is described as having 'skin the colour of burnt caramel'. It makes you grind your molars until you remember that this is the 80s and such clangers were horrifyingly commonplace. The question that came to haunt me as I read A Beautiful Family was from what distance is this child narrator telling her story? The voice is in first person, past tense, which indicates that there is space between the events and the telling of them. But it's never made clear how much space: only a couple of moments where the narrator says directly that she doesn't remember a certain detail. For some reason this struck me and niggled at me. I suspect that not many other readers will be at all concerned with this but I wished for those intimations of distance to be either removed or embellished because, for this reader at least, it made me question memory, naivety and the precise impact of the story on its teller. Trevelyan has revealed herself to be a perfectionist and a very careful writer so I doubt that this ambiguity is erroneous, but rather a deliberate nod towards the way core childhood memories stay, and replay. Because this is a summer that lingers: it's the kind of childhood scenario that would lodge itself in the brain and return to the mind's eye with changing lenses as you aged. It is immediately clear that the child's parents are unhappy and that Vanessa (the sister) has struck a particularly unpleasant and caustic stage of her teenage years. The child is left largely to her own devices until she meets Kahu, a young boy, and he tells her about Charlotte who disappeared from the beach one summer when she was nine years old. The book is haunted by Charlotte in several ways. As an unsolved mystery it gives the two lonely children something to investigate; and it adds an extra element of suspicion to the dead-eyed neighbour that trains his gaze over the child and her family. Trevelyan carefully places her threats: there's the simmering unhappiness between the parents; clear signs of an affair; a very creepy neighbour; and the sea. Children are frequently left alone at the beach in this story. While the descriptions of diving in and out of the waves like dolphins are charming, nostalgic, you're left to worry about drowning. New Zealand has horrendous child drowning rates. Our losses make it very hard to read a local novel where the sea laps and waits for unsupervised children. You're left to shout into the pages for the adults to focus on their kids for once; to shout 'remember Charlotte?!' The mother character is one of the most intriguing figures in this novel where the adults are so absent they're almost abstract. She's having an affair (this is made obvious early on), and she's trying to write a book. At least, her child thinks that's what she's doing. Whatever it is she's scribbling, it lets her take her eye off the ball: helps her escape her family, escape parenting, her miserable marriage, her surroundings. Early on we learn that the mother usually demands they holiday in remote places. So her family finds it unusual that this summer she wants to go 'where there are people'. It becomes clear that the affair has a lot to do with this change of heart; but what I found most interesting was the depiction of the writer as selfish, self-isolating and self-destructive. I suspect that many women of a certain age will empathise strongly with her, particularly in contrast to the man she married. Through his child's eyes we get glimpses of a father who thinks it's not his job to chaperone the children on the beach; who is friendly enough but who is quietly fuming about his marital situation; who is racist; and who enacts a violence that will severely scar any of Trevelyan's readers who are writers. A Beautiful Family reminded me, to some degree, of the film Little Children (2006). Ostensibly a movie about an affair, it becomes, in dramatic fashion, a story about the selfishness of adults: the damage they can cause to the children they like to think are unknowing and unseeing. Trevelyan's story plays a similar trick in that its mystery centres on a missing girl, a creepy man, and the terror that experimenting teenagers can inflict upon themselves and others. But this is really a novel about parents: about what they don't see, what they distract themselves with (cricket, BBQs, projects, affairs, discontents) and what they miss. But what of that bold claim on the proof copy? A Beautiful Family is well written, it's immersive, and it is haunting. It's a novel that will prompt you to look back over your own childhood and assess the threats; the fast friendships; the collisions with siblings and strangers. A Beautiful Family has an atmosphere and an eye for place that means it has the potential to make a good Aotearoa noir film and one hopefully filmed on the Kāpiti Coast. I can see why Felicity Blunt was so confident about this novel: there is a universality to the way the child observes danger, weathers the storm of family, is plagued by what she remembers. There's a cinematic quality to the writing. But I hope you read more than one book in 2025. New Zealand is producing so much compelling fiction: more of it deserves to be read, discovered, and helped to go big. Hopefully Trevelyan's success will help kick that door open a little wider. A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan ($37, Allen & Unwin) is available to purchase from Unity Books. The Spinoff Books section is proudly brought to you by Unity Books and Creative New Zealand. Visit Unity Books online today.
NZ Herald
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Top 10 bestselling books: June 7
Catherine Chidgey's The Book of Guilt holds fast at the top of the NZ bestsellers' list. Photos / Supplied 1. (1) The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press) Heading all the local charts for the third week running is Catherine Chidgey's latest novel, which tells the mysterious, ominous story of three boys in an alternative 1970s Britain. It's a 'tense, 'There is the hint of submerged identity; of aspiration and prosperity, rubbing skins with disappointment and neglect; a preoccupation with what is authentic and what is fraudulent; the self and truth only dimly visible … Calling on the deeply rooted psychological power of the storytelling rule of three, the novel is divided into The Book of Dreams, The Book of Knowledge and The Book of Guilt. Three women, Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night, care for a set of 13-year-old triplets in an all-boy's orphanage. There are three main narrative perspectives: Vincent, one of the triplets; the Minister of Loneliness, a government minister in charge of national care institutions known as the Sycamore Homes; and Nancy, a young girl kept in seclusion by fastidious older parents. This attention to pattern also coolly embodies the quest for order and control, the troubling obsession at the core of the fictional investigation.'
