Books set in New Zealand (35)
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21.
Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh EN
FijiDescription:
In this gripping thriller set in New Zealand, New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh takes you into the twisted world of an exclusive cul-de-sac located on the edge of a sprawling forest. My mother vanished ten years ago. So did a quarter of a million dollars in cash. Thief. Bitch. Criminal. Now, she's back. Her bones clothed in scarlet silk. When socialite Nina Rai disappeared without a trace, everyone wrote it off as another trophy wife tired of her wealthy husband. But now her bones have turned up in the shadowed green of the forest that surrounds her elite neighborhood, a haven of ... continue
22.
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
23.
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.
24.
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
25.
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
26.
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
27.
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.
28.
The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke by Tina Makereti EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
"The hour is late. The candle is low. Tomorrow I will see whether it is my friends or a ship homewards I meet. But I must finish my story for you first. My future, my descendant, my mokopuna. Listen. So begins the tale of James Poneke: orphaned son of a chief; ardent student of English; wide-eyed survivor. All the worlds a stage, especially when youre a living exhibit. But anything can happen to a young New Zealander on the savage streets of Victorian London. When James meets the man with laughing dark eyes and the woman who dresses as a man, he begins to discover who people really are beneath... continue
29.
The Impossible Resurrection of Grief by Octavia Cade EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
IN A DYING WORLD, GRIEF HAS A LIFE OF ITS OWN... With the collapse of ecosystems and the extinction of species comes the Grief: an unstoppable melancholia that ends in suicide. When Ruby's friend, mourning the loss of the Great Barrier Reef, succumbs to the Grief, the letters she leaves behind reveal the hidden world of the resurrected dead. The Tasmanian tiger, brought back from extinction in an isolated facility, is only the first... but rebirth is not always biological, and it comes with a price. As a scientist, Ruby resists the Grief by focusing her research on resilient jellyfish, but she... continue
30.
The Parihaka Woman by Witi Ihimaera EN
Country: Oceania / New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
A wonderfully surprising, inventive and deeply moving riff on fact and fiction, history and imagination from one of New Zealand's finest and most memorable storytellers. There has never been a New Zealand novel quite like The Parihaka Woman. Richly imaginative and original, weaving together fact and fiction, it sets the remarkable story of Erenora against the historical background of the turbulent and compelling events that occurred in Parihaka during the 1870s and 1880s. Parihaka is the place Erenora calls home, a peaceful Taranaki settlement overcome by war and land confiscation. As her worl... continue