Category: Historical Fiction

Kāwai: For Such A Time As This – Monty Soutar

Posted on April 10, 2023 by

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READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS In the opening pages a 19-year-old man walks onto his family Marae and asks the local koroua about his whanau’s history. The man’s answer is provided over the following 300-odd pages. He tells of Kaitanga, born 1734 into a… Continue Reading “Kāwai: For Such A Time As This – Monty Soutar”

Category: Cultural, Historical Fiction, Kiwi lit, Māori Fiction, NZ Book AwardsTags: , , , , , , , , ,

Lessons – Ian McEwan

Posted on January 27, 2023 by

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READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Jodie In a type of anti-memoir, McEwan has created Roland, a character who has lived the same years as him, observed the same global events and pondered the same questions about humanity and society. Roland has even lived in some… Continue Reading “Lessons – Ian McEwan”

Category: Domestic Fiction, Family drama, Historical Fiction, Literary fiction, UK authorTags: , , , , , , , , ,

The Color Purple – Alice Walker

Posted on November 2, 2022 by

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READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Jo The lives of two African-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia in the early to mid 20th Century are detailed in The Color Purple. Celie is raped by her stepfather and bears two children to him who are sent… Continue Reading “The Color Purple – Alice Walker”

Category: Domestic Fiction, Family drama, Feminism, Historical Fiction, LGBT, Literary fiction, US fictionTags: , , , , , ,

The Dictionary of Lost Words – Pip Williams

Posted on October 17, 2022 by

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READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Jodie ❝ Esme Nicholl is the daughter of a lexiographer, raised in the Scriptorium where the first dictionary is collated. She hides beneath the table and collects slips of paper containing words that are lost or deemed unsuitable. As she… Continue Reading “The Dictionary of Lost Words – Pip Williams”

Category: Historical Fiction, UK authorTags: , , , , , , , ,

The Trees – Percival Everett

Posted on September 21, 2022 by

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READ FOR BOOKERTHON In Money, Mississippi white folk suddenly start turning up dead, savagely beaten and with a black man’s body present, cradling the dead’s severed testicles. A satirical look at the US’s grim history of racial violence. ❝ The Trees is set in… Continue Reading “The Trees – Percival Everett”

Category: Booker Prize, Historical Fiction, Literary fiction, Satire, US fictionTags: , , , , , , , , ,

Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan

Posted on September 14, 2022 by

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READ FOR BOOKERTHON In New Ross, Ireland in 1985 a man named Bill Furlong works tirelessly delivering coal and firewood to the townsfolk, when he makes an unexpected discovery. A short book about community and complicity. ❝ As I got underway with Small Things Like… Continue Reading “Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan”

Category: Booker Prize, Historical Fiction, Irish, Literary fictionTags: , , , , , , , ,

The Matriarch – Witi Ihimaera

Posted on March 20, 2022 by

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READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Jo Tama Mahana is a grown man analysing the mystique and ambition of his grandmother, the matriarch of his family. But to truely appreciate the paths she has taken, he must study Māori mythology and New Zealand history. Tama is… Continue Reading “The Matriarch – Witi Ihimaera”

Category: Cultural, Family drama, Female Experience, Historical Fiction, Kiwi lit, Literary fiction, Mthyical/folklore, Māori FictionTags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Sophie’s Choice – William Styron

Posted on February 3, 2022 by

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READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Rachel An aspiring novelist is captivated by a Holocaust survivor and her unpredictable boyfriend Stingo is a Southern young man aspiring to be a novelist and living off the income from his grandmother’s controversial sale of slaves many years prior.… Continue Reading “Sophie’s Choice – William Styron”

Category: Female Experience, Historical Fiction, US fiction, War storyTags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Fortune Men – Nadifa Mohamed

Posted on October 9, 2021 by

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READ FOR BOOKERTHON Set in 1952 in Cardiff, The Fortune Men details the real events surrounding the wrongful imprisonment of Mahmood Mattan, a Somali seaman. False witness accounts and racist policing led to him being found guilty of the murder of a local shopkeeper. In prison… Continue Reading “The Fortune Men – Nadifa Mohamed”

Category: Booker Prize, Historical FictionTags: , , , , , , , ,

A Passage North – Anuk Arudpragasam

Posted on October 2, 2021 by

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READ FOR BOOKERTHON Sri Lankan man Krishnan receives two messages, the first informing him his grandmother’s caretaker Rani has died, found in the bottom of a well with her neck broken. The second is from Anjum an activist Krishnan loved years ago, which stirs… Continue Reading “A Passage North – Anuk Arudpragasam”

Category: Booker Prize, Historical Fiction, War storyTags: , , , , ,

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