Category: Faith & Religion
READ FOR BOOKERTHON The End of Everything is a speculative novel set in a future where an unexplained crisis has transformed the world, and strange new life forms coexist with humans. Phillip Tennent makes his living collecting artefacts washed ashore from the English Channel,… Continue Reading “The End of Everything – M John Harrison”
Category: Absurdist, Adventure, Booker Prize, Dystopian, Existentialist, Experimental fiction, Faith & Religion, Humour, Literary fiction, Philosophical, Political, Postmodern Literature, Psychological, Satire, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Surreal, UK authorTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2026
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 NZ BOOK AWARDS Set during a cold Wellington winter, Before The Winter Ends explores the immigrant experience via Omar, a teen whose grades are slipping and is losing connection with his best friend, and his mother who recalls her life two decades… Continue Reading “Before The Winter Ends – Khadro Mohamed”
Category: Coming of Age, Cultural, Faith & Religion, Family drama, Historical Fiction, Immigrant story, Kiwi lit, Literary fiction, NZ Book Awards, War storyTags: Free Range Bookclub 2026, Kiwi Fiction
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 WOMEN’S PRIZE Nadia Amin, a PhD graduate, publishes an article on deradicalisation, and ends up with a job rehabilitating Isis brides in Iraq. Relishing the opportunity to escape her claustophobic mother and broken relationship she realises she needs to heal herself as… Continue Reading “Fundamentally – Nussaibah Younis”
Category: Contemporary fiction, Cultural, Faith & Religion, Female Experience, Humour, Literary fiction, Political, Queer, Satire, UK author, Women's PrizeTags: Free Range Bookclub 2025, Women's Prize
READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS Māreikura is analysing her identity and begins a programme of “decolonisation”. Via her outspoken and inquisitive nature she leads us through a witty, poignant and accidental exploration of the effects of colonisation, which, the book explains, was not a… Continue Reading “All That We Know – Shilo Kino”
Category: Colonisation, Coming of Age, Contemporary fiction, Cultural, Faith & Religion, Female Experience, Historical Fiction, Kiwi lit, Literary fiction, Māori Fiction, NZ Book Awards, Political, QueerTags: Free Range Bookclub 2025, Kiwi Fiction
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 BOOKERTHON A grieving, unnamed narrator attends a spiritual retreat at a convent, departs and returns again with no plan of leaving. As an atheist she is committed to giving back through hard work rather than praying. Set over Covid, the narrator finds… Continue Reading “Stone Yard Devotional – Charlotte Wood”
Category: Australian author, Booker Prize, Climate Fiction, Contemporary fiction, Covid Fiction, Environmental fiction, Existentialist, Faith & Religion, Female Experience, Literary fiction, Mystery/Crime, Philosophical, Psychological, RealistTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2024
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Jo Janina lives alone in a desolate, snowy part of Poland near the Czech border. She studies astrology, over analyses everything and has a fiercely protective nature for the animals of the region. She becomes concerned when the police don’t… Continue Reading “Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead – Olga Tokarczuk”
Category: Art, Booker Prize, Cultural, Environmental fiction, Existentialist, Faith & Religion, Female Experience, Gothic, Humour, Literary fiction, Mystery/Crime, National Book Awards, Philosophical, Political, Psychological, Satire, Thriller, Translated, Unreliable NarratorTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2024
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