Category: Humour
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 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
READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS In the rural reaches of Auckland, the women of the eclectic Gordon family gather for Christmas. Rita, the 50-year-old baby of the family, is planning to tell them she has cancer. Drifting between past and present, she considers the… Continue Reading “Hoods Landing – Laura Vincent”
Category: Contemporary fiction, Domestic Fiction, Family drama, Female Experience, Gothic, Humour, Kiwi lit, Literary fiction, Māori Fiction, NZ Book Awards, QueerTags: Free Range Bookclub 2026, Kiwi Fiction, Ockham NZ Book Awards
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Jodie Three women – a maverick biologist and two sisters embroiled in the Russian bride industry and searching for their missing mother – kidnap 13 hopeful bachelors and race across Ukraine trying to find a mate for a last-of-its-kind Lefty… Continue Reading “Endling – Maria Reva”
Category: Absurdist, Adventure, Booker Prize, Climate Fiction Prize, Environmental fiction, Experimental fiction, Female Experience, Feminism, Humour, Literary fiction, Metafiction, Political, Postmodern Literature, Satire, War storyTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2025
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 WOMEN’S PRIZE The story of an Iranian family, some of whom flee to the US during times of conflict, and some who stay. Five women from three generations of the Valiat family narrate their past and present as members of the Iranian… Continue Reading “The Persians – Sanam Mahloudji”
Category: Cultural, Family drama, Female Experience, Historical Fiction, Humour, Immigrant story, Literary fiction, Political, Psychological, US fiction, Women's PrizeTags: Free Range Bookclub 2025, Women's Prize
READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS Retired cop and librarian Mary and Pete are struggling with ailments and deciding whether to move into a retirement home or stay in their family home. Then the police ask to speak to them about the accident that killed… Continue Reading “Delirious – Damien Wilkins”
Category: Contemporary fiction, Domestic Fiction, Family drama, Humour, Kiwi lit, Literary fiction, NZ Book Awards, Psychological, RealistTags: Free Range Bookclub 2025, Kiwi Fiction, Ockham NZ Book Awards
READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS Written by Michelle Rahurahu (Ngāti Rahurahu, Ngāti Tahu, Ngāti Whaoa) Poorhara uses a play on the word Pōhara (poverty), and is about living without – without money or possessions, and without the same rights and respect as others. The plot… Continue Reading “Poorhara – Michelle Rahurahu”
Category: Colonisation, Coming of Age, Cultural, Humour, Kiwi lit, Literary fiction, Mthyical/folklore, Māori Fiction, NZ Book Awards, Political, Realist, Road TripTags: Free Range Bookclub 2025
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Jodie Mieczysław, a student suffering from tuberculosis, arrives at the Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen but discovers there are many mysterious goings on, involving deaths, misogyny and the occult. Set in a Polish sanatorium in 1913, The Empusium blends horror,… Continue Reading “The Empusium – Olga Tokarczuk”
Category: Allegory, Experimental fiction, Female Experience, Feminism, Gothic, Historical Fiction, Horror, Humour, Literary fiction, Mthyical/folklore, Philosophical, Political, Psychological, Queer, Satire, Surreal, TranslatedTags: Free Range Bookclub 2025
READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS Thea is a veterinarian on maternity leave, called back in just before disaster strikes. Ash has a focus on motherhood, misogyny, female expression, rage and Mother Nature. This novella is presented creatively with prose, poetry, footnotes and unique typesetting.… Continue Reading “Ash – Louise Wallace”
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