Category: Art
READ FOR BOOKERTHON Black Bag follows an unemployed actor who accepts a bizarre job participating in a psychology experiment where he spends a term attending university lectures zipped inside a large black leather bag. Inspired by a real experiment from 1967, this absurdist campus… Continue Reading “Black Bag – Luke Kennard”
Category: Absurdist, Art, Booker Prize, Contemporary fiction, Existentialist, Experimental fiction, Humour, Literary fiction, Philosophical, Political, Psychological, Satire, Surreal, UK authorTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2026
A local artist and a Belaruisan refugee meet regularly at a Christchurch cafe to discuss life, art and politics. A priest once told me that we fall in love with people with whom we have wounds in common, that in caring for them we’re… Continue Reading “How To Paint A Nude – Sam Mahon”
Category: Art, Contemporary fiction, Environmental fiction, Kiwi lit, Literary fiction, Metafiction, NZ Book Awards, Philosophical, PoliticalTags: Free Range Bookclub 2026, Kiwi Fiction, Ockham NZ Book Awards
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Rachel Described as a radical fusion of feminist theory and experimental horror, Girls Against God is a stream of consciousness narrative on censorship, magic, gender, art and rebellion against power systems. I don’t know why I feel I have to… Continue Reading “Girls Against God – Jenny Hval”
Category: Art, Coming of Age, Experimental fiction, Faith & Religion, Feminism, Horror, Literary fiction, Metafiction, Queer, Surreal, TranslatedTags: Free Range Bookclub 2026
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Sally Brodie Moncur is a young Scottish piano tuner who moves to Paris for a job and to escape his tyrannical father. There, a fateful encounter with a famous pianist changes his future and sparks an obsessive love affair with… Continue Reading “Love is Blind – William Boyd”
READ FOR BOOKERTHON The Loneliness of Sonia & Sunny follows two immigrants navigating the quiet ache of isolation in a globalised world. Sonia and Sunny are writers in America, out of tune with their partners and confessing to loneliness and homesickness for their native… Continue Reading “The Loneliness of Sonia & Sunny – Kiran Desai”
Category: Art, Booker Prize, Coming of Age, Cultural, Family drama, Immigrant story, Indian fiction, Literary fiction, Magical Realism, Philosophical, Political, Psychological, SatireTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2025
READ FOR BOOKERTHON Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubled, and young. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In Audition, two competing but mirroring narratives… Continue Reading “Audition – Katie Kitamura”
Category: Art, Booker Prize, Domestic Fiction, Experimental fiction, Female Experience, Literary fiction, Metafiction, Philosophical, Postmodern Literature, Psychological, Thriller, Unreliable Narrator, US fiction, Women's PrizeTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2025
READ FOR WOMEN’S PRIZEA coming of age about Nila, a girl born in Berlin to Afghan immigrants. For Nila there is a constant negotiation between her inherited grief and her desire to belong in a culture that doesn’t reflect her. As a result she… Continue Reading “Good Girl – Aria Aber”
Category: Art, Coming of Age, Contemporary fiction, Cultural, Female Experience, Immigrant story, Literary fiction, Political, Psychological, US fiction, Women's PrizeTags: Free Range Bookclub 2025, Women's Prize
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Rachel Cryus Shams is an Iranian immigrant and a recently sober poet grappling with addiction, cultural disconnection and the loss of his mother, whose plane was shot down by the US navy. In his exploration of what it means to… Continue Reading “Martyr! – Kaveh Akbar”
Category: Art, Coming of Age, Cultural, Existentialist, Experimental fiction, Faith & Religion, Family drama, Immigrant story, National Book Awards, Political, Psychological, Queer, US fictionTags: Free Range Bookclub 2024
READ FOR BOOKERTHON Beginning with a soldier injured in the WWI trenches and observing three subsequent generations of family, Held is a kaleidoscopic narrative of memories, dreams and the supernatural. Held together by symbols, metaphors and motifs rather than a traditional linear narrative, Michaels… Continue Reading “Held – Anne Michaels”
Category: Art, Booker Prize, Canadian Author, Environmental fiction, Faith & Religion, Family drama, Female Experience, Ghost story, Historical Fiction, Literary fiction, Philosophical, Psychological, Stream Of Consciousness, War storyTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2024
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Suzy Set in the 1580s, this book is about Shakespeare and the events that led to him writing the play Hamlet. It is told not from his point of view, but from that of his wife, who is left in… Continue Reading “Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell”
Category: Art, Domestic Fiction, Family drama, Female Experience, Historical Fiction, Irish, Literary fiction, Philosophical, Psychological, UK author, Women's PrizeTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2024
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