Dan Kois is a writer at Slate and the author, most recently, of the memoir "How to Be a Family: The Year I Dragged My Kids Around the World to Find a New Way to Be Together."
I’ve only scratched the surface of New Zealand writing since I lived in Wellington while writing my book How to Be a Family. Non-Kiwis, if they know New Zealand lit at all, likely know the stories of Katherine Mansfield, Keri Hulme’s remarkable 1985 Booker Prize winner The Bone People, or the memoirs of Janet Frame. (Or maybe they’ve just seen An Angel at My Table.) But I’m in love with the country’s contemporary literary scene, which is vibrant, supportive, and self-reliant—a nation of readers, reading books that speak urgently to their country’s past and present.
You can order any of these books online from Unity Books, Wellington’s terrific independent bookstore, and they’ll ship them to you in a neat little brown-paper-wrapped parcel. (Before you freak out at the prices, remember that the NZ dollar is worth about 65 cents.)
Nothing to See by Pip Adam
When Adam won New Zealand’s top fiction prize for her unclassifiable 2017 novel about fast fashion and marine life, The New Animals, I racked my brain for the last time that an American awards body gave a prize to anything half as weird. It deserved the award. Her follow-up, published just last month, is even better: a contemporary masterpiece about identity, booze, computer programming, and surveillance.
Can You Tolerate This? by Ashleigh Young
A quiet, moving book of essays by a writer who surprised everyone by winning a prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize in 2017. The pieces include thoughtful memoirs of a rural childhood but also mesmerizing portraits of modern city life. It was published in the U.S. by Riverhead. Young is also an editor at Victoria University Press, the country’s pre-eminent literary publisher. You can read one of Young’s essays here.
The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke by Tina Makereti
A sweeping historical novel about an orphaned Mãori boy who travels to Victorian London, full of adventure, keen satire, and period detail. Taika Waititi’s production company just optioned it for film.
Hera Lindsay Bird by Hera Lindsay Bird
The enfant terrible of New Zealand poetry stars as herself in this funny, flighty, extremely readable collection. Inspirational title: “Keats is Dead So Fuck Me From Behind.”
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
Catton’s 2013 Booker winner The Luminaries is a fun, fat slice of historical drama, but I’m partial to her debut, a slimmer, more elusive portrait of a group of acting students responding to a scandal in their school.
The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox
I already went way overboard praising this fantasy epic in the pages of Slate, in a piece that had the desired effect: Penguin will publish it in the U.S. in 2021. It’s a hell of a ride.
A Mistake by Carl Shuker
A hypercompetent doctor makes a single error during surgery and watches the weight of institutional fear and sexism come crashing down upon her. Shuker’s novel, published in the U.S. by Counterpoint, is mesmerizing, alienating, and shocking.
The Stories of Bill Manhire by Bill Manhire
A career-capping collection from the grand old man of New Zealand letters. These stories are funny, sentimental, and not even a tiny bit old-fashioned.
Mansfield and Me by Sarah Laing
This engaging comics memoir is both a compelling mini-biography of Katherine Mansfield and a whimsical, honest look at an artist struggling to find her own voice.
Auē by Becky Manawatu
This year’s winner of the country’s top fiction prize is an ambitious novel of family violence and family love by a Māori debut novelist. My copy just arrived in its neat little brown paper; I can’t wait to read it.
July 16, 2020
