Popular Oceanian Historical Books

Find historical books written by authors from Oceania for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (32)

21.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak EN

Rating: 5 (98 votes)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME The extraordinary, beloved novel about the ability of books to feed the soul even in the darkest of times. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to rea... continue

22.

The Future Eaters : An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People by Tim Flannery EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
In this illustrated ecological history, acclaimed scientist and historian Flannery follows the environment of the islands through the age of dinosaurs to the age of mammals and the arrival of humans, to the European colonizers and industrial society. Penetrating, gripping, and provocative, this book combines natural history, anthropology, and ecology on an epic scale. Illustrations.

23.

The Girl in the Moon Circle by Sia Figiel EN

Rating: 1 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Samoa flag Samoa
Description:
Western Samoan novel in English.

24.

The Luminaries : A Novel by Eleanor Catton EN

Rating: 4 (8 votes)
Description:
Arriving in New Zealand in 1866 to seek his fortune in the goldfields, Walter Moody finds himself drawn into a series of unsolved crimes and complex mysteries.

25.

The Palauan Arts by David Ramarui EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Palau flag Palau
Description:
The Palauan Arts was published and printed in 1980 in the Micronesian Reporter and a booklet form. The book analyses Palauan art and attempts to explain its various aspects and components: pictorial, carvings, ornamental, and artifacts. This is one of many titles authored by David Ramarui. Other titles include The Geography of Micronesia, 1953, Omilil Era Iungs, 1959.

26.

The Secret River by Kate Grenville EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
'Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize and Australian Book Industry Awards, Book of the Year. After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and children in tow, he arrives in a harsh land that feels at first like a de...

27.

The Strays by Emily Bitto EN

0 Ratings
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
In The Strays, Evan Trentham is the wild child of the Melbourne art world of the 1930s. He and his captivating wife, Helena, attempt to carve out their own small niche, to escape the stifling conservatism they see around them, by gathering together other like-minded artists. They create a utopian circle within their family home, offering these young artists a place to live and work, and the mixed benefits of being associated with the infamous Evan. At the periphery of this circle is Lily Struthers, the best friend of Evan and Helena's daughter Eva. Lily is infatuated by the world she bears wit... continue

28.

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera EN

Rating: 4 (6 votes)
Description:
Eight-year-old Kahu, a member of the Maori tribe of New Zealand, fights to prove her love, her leadership, and her destiny when hundreds of whales beach themselves and threaten the future of the Maori tribe. Basis for the 2003 feature film.

29.

The Yield by Tara June Winch EN

Rating: 5 (3 votes)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
"After a decade in Europe August Gondiwindi returns to Australia for the funeral of her much-loved grandfather, Albert, at Prosperous House, her only real home and also a place of great grief and devastation. Leading up to his death Poppy Gondiwindi has been compiling a dictionary of the language he was forbidden from speaking after being sent to Prosperous House as a child. Poppy was the family storyteller and August is desperate to find the precious book that he had spent his last energies compiling. The Yield also tells the story of Reverend Greenleaf, who recalls founding the first mission... continue

30.

True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey EN

0 Ratings
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
'I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silence...' To the authorities in pursuit of him, outlaw Ned Kelly is a horse thief, bank robber and police-killer. But to his fellow ordinary Australians, Kelly is their own Robin Hood. In a dazzling act of ventriloquism, Peter Carey brings the famous bushranger wildly and passionately to life.