2024 – NZ Book Awards

The notable feature of this year’s longlist was the number of big name authors who have won literary awards in the past and featured on all sorts of national and international prize lists. Previous winners of this award Stephen Daisley, Pip Adam, Eleanor Catton, Emily Perkins and Catherine Chidgey all graced the list, along with Anna Smaill who has been longlisted for the Booker Prize in the past. They are joined by four up and comers: Emma Hislop, Tihema Baker, Amy Head and Emma Ling-Sidham.

The shortlist ended up with four of the previous winners taking centre stage. These talented authors have produced a snapshot of New Zealand with their shortlisted works the produced probably the strongest shortlist the Prize has seen for a long time.

A Better Place by Stephen Daisley tells of twin brothers fighting in Crete during World War II. It looks at the horrors our young men were subjected to and how love, camaraderie and bravery were paramount to any kind of survival. It is unapologetically brutal.

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton takes inspiration from Macbeth in the story of a clash between a guerilla gardening group and a US billionaire, both using NZ land illegally. This eco-political thriller is set in 2016 and there are many references to events, people, political decision making and conversations in the public arena of the time.

Lioness by Emily Perkins is the story of a woman in her 50s who must adapt and transform after her husband is accused of corruption. Set in Wellington prior to Covid it raises questions about male-dominated capitalist circles and how women are affected by their eat or be eaten mentality.

Audition by Pip Adam is a sci-fi, social fiction and experimental fiction blend, examining the state of New Zealand’s justice and prison systems with three prisoners set off in a space ship as part of their sentences. As they settle in a new land the author examines what it takes to be a good coloniser.

..the real choices that you make in your life, the really difficult, defining choices are never between what’s right and what’s easy. They’re between what’s wrong and what’s hard. – Birnam Wood.

● Rachel: I can only imagine how hard it was to pick a shortlist this year with so much talent in the longlist. I have read seven of the books and was disappointed that Pet and Bird Life did not make it. In any other year I think Backwaters would have been a contender – I’m hoping Ling-Sidham takes the debut novel award.

My pick for the winner is Lioness. It has excellent characters, an addictive story line and raises many societal questions for the reader to ponder. Especially about how women are viewed by both men and women in society. The concept of privilege, and the idea of being in a pack, to be embraced one day and discarded the next, is strong. Perkins has adeptly woven so many techniques into the structure of the book and I admire her ability to entertain, question and take moral responsibility for what she is producing.

Pip Adam and Eleanor Catton have taken this social responsibility line too, but I feel Audition is too experimental for its point to be properly understood by the everyday reader (this includes myself) though her ability to write outside what is usual and expected could secure her the win. Catton made me feel like I was being lectured to (albeit in a page-turning, entertaining way). For me, I appreciate a writer raising serious topics but I want the freedom to consider and form my own opinions, not be preached at. A Better Place is a hard book to read due to its unrelenting war content but I did enjoy it and think it’s a strong contender for the win due to its historical context. It has recorded an important time in New Zealand history and done so in an artful, poetic way.

My order of who I think should win changes everyday because it’s such a strong list but today it is this: it includes all seven of the books I have read because I think some of those who missed out were hard done by. Lioness — Bird Life — A Better Place — Pet — Birnam Wood — Audition — Backwaters.

● Suzy: I’m still a bit miffed that Bird Life by Anna Smail wasn’t shortlisted, but in saying that I’m unsure which of these four shortlisters doesn’t deserve to be here as they are all pretty spectacular.

Overall I thought Lioness was the standout – the prickly energy of this novel still resonates with me. Following that I liked Birnam Wood, Audition and then A Better Place. A Better Place doesn’t deserve to be fourth, I just found it to be so utterly relentless to the point of often being unbearable – surely a sign that the author is completely on point.