Books from New Zealand
56 popular new zealand books
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world.
All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Oceania Challenge" were written by authors from New Zealand.
Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.
31.
Sisters Under the Rising Sun : A Novel by Heather Morris EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
The phenomenal new novel, based on a true story, from the multimillion-copy bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka's Journey and Three Sisters. 1942. Singapore is falling to the Japanese Army. English musician Norah Chambers places her eight-year-old daughter Sally on a ship leaving Singapore, desperate to keep her safe. As the island burns, Australian nurse Nesta James joins the terrified cargo of people, including the heartbroken Norah, crammed aboard the HMS Vyner Brooke. After only two days at sea, the ship is bombarded and sunk. Nesta and Norah reach the beaches of Indone... continue
32.
Sleeps Standing by Witi Ihimaera, Hēmi Kelly EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Both fiction and fact, this fascinating book is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the Battle of Orakau. During three days in 1864, 300 Maori men, women and children fought an Imperial army and captured the imagination of the world. The battle marked the end of the Land Wars in the Waikato and resulted in vast tracts of land being confiscated for European settlement. Instead of following the usual standpoint of the victors, this book takes a Maori perspective. It is centred around Witi Ihimaera's moving novella, Sleeps Standing, which views the battle through the eyes of a 16-year-old boy named Mo... continue
33.
Small Bodies of Water by Nina Mingya Powles EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
In lyrical, powerful prose, Small Bodies of Water weaves together memories, dreams and nature writing. Exploring everything from migration, food, family, earthquakes and the ancient lunisolar calendar, Nina reflects on a girlhood spent growing up between two cultures, and what it means to belong.
34.
Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Beautiful Sorcha is the courageous young woman who risked all to save her family from a wicked curse and whose love shattered generations of hate and bridged two cultures. It is from her sacrifice that Sorcha's brothers were brought home to their ancestral fortress Sevenwaters, and her life has known much joy. But not all the brothers were able to fully escape the spell that transformed them into swans, and it is left to Sorcha's daughter Liadan to help fulfill the destiny of the Sevenwaters clan. Beloved child and dutiful daughter, Liadan embarks on a journey that shows her just how hard-won ... continue
35.
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
"This novel is about a woman called Martha. She knows there is something wrong with her but she doesn't know what it is. Her husband Patrick thinks she is fine. He says everyone has something, the thing is just to keep going. By the time Martha finds out what is wrong, it doesn't really matter anymore. It is too late to get the only thing she has ever wanted. Or maybe it will turn out that you can stop loving someone and start again from nothing - if you can find something else to want."--Provided by publisher.
36.
Tauhou : A Novel by Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Finalist, 2024 Amazon Canada First Novel Award Dear grandmother, I am writing this song, over and over again, for you. I am a stranger in this place, he tauhou ahau, reintroducing myself to your land. Tauhou is an inventive exploration of Indigenous families, womanhood, and alternate post-colonial realities by Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall, a writer of Māori and Coast Salish descent. This innovative hybrid novel envisions a shared past between two Indigenous cultures, set on reimagined versions of Vancouver Island and Aotearoa New Zealand that sit side by side in the ocean. Each chapter is a fable, ... continue
37.
Teine Samoa by Dahlia Malaeulu EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Teine Samoa means Samoan girl. It's a label that carries with it an unspoken duty to obey, serve and respect your family and Samoan culture. But who can be teine Samoa? When should you be teine Samoa? And how can you be teine Samoa outside of Samoa? Lani is an afakasi, and is unsure of her Samoan heritage and what being Samoan even means. But one thing she knows for sure is that she's afraid of Vai and the 'Real Samoans'. Masina, the free-spirited daughter of a Church Minister, is bound by parental expectations and struggling to fulfill the destiny set by her parents. Teuila is the good Island... continue
38.
The Bone People by Keri Hulme EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Integrating both Maori myth and New Zealand reality, The Bone People became the most successful novel in New Zealand publishing history when it appeared in 1984. Set on the South Island beaches of New Zealand, a harsh environment, the novel chronicles the complicated relationships between three emotional outcasts of mixed European and Maori heritage. Kerewin Holmes is a painter and a loner, convinced that "to care for anything is to invite disaster." Her isolation is disrupted one day when a six-year-old mute boy, Simon, breaks into her house. The sole survivor of a mysterious shipwreck, Simon... continue
39.
The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Ruth Shaw weaves together stories of the characters who visit her bookshops, musings about her favourite books, and bittersweet stories from her full and varied life before bookshops. She sailed through the Pacific for years, was held up by pirates, worked at Sydney's King's Cross with drug addicts and prostitutes, campaigned on numerous environmental issues, and worked the yacht Breaksea Girl as an expedition/tourist boat with her husband, Lance. But underlining all her wanderings and adventures are some very deep losses and long-held pain. Balancing that out is her beautiful love story with ... continue
40.
The Cleaner : A Thriller by Paul Cleave EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
A police department janitor named Joe investigates what is thought to be the seventh Christchurch Carver murder, except that Joe knows for certain that the latest homicide is the work of a copycat killer.