Latest from Books

Author Elspeth Sandys on mad mothers, philandering husbands and what cheerful people might be covering up

It’s no surprise challenging characters inspire Elspeth Sandys. They have filled her life.

Luther creator Neil Cross talks new tv thriller The Iris Affair, and life in Khandallah

The Wellington-based UK screenwriter on his new AI-meets-Hitchcock series.

Should women start planning for divorce from the day they’re married? Economist Corinne Low thinks so

Jane Austen knew marriage costs; now an economist weighs in with formula for women today.

Book of the Day: Sparta: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Superpower by Andrew Bayliss

Martial Greek city-state allowed political misjudgments to undermine battlefield heroics.

Talking TikTok and brainrot words: How social media has rewired language

Linguistic purists are delulu if they think social media language will end civilisation.

Top 10 bestselling NZ books: October 11

The local books Kiwis have been buying this week.

Memoir vs make-believe: NZ author on why writing fiction is scarier than nonfiction

Ingrid Horrocks assumed writing fiction would be easier than non-fiction. She was wrong.

Three new novels to look out for this month

A sharp political dramedy, a heady cocktail of fact and fiction and story set in Tasmania.

Book of the Day: The Last Living Cannibal by Airana Ngarewa

Airana Ngarewa draws from his own whakapapa for story of a survivor of Tītokowaru’s war.

Book of the Day: Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood

Patricia Lockwood’s new novel doubles down and tests the patience of her devotees.

Top 10 bestselling NZ books: September 27

The local books we've been buying this week.

Book of the Day: House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk

Reality, folklore and fiction mingle on the page of imaginative "constellation" novel.

Book of the Day: Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia by Sam Dalrymple

When the British exited direct rule in India, they unleashed chaos on millions of people.

Jung Chang on how her mother inspired the Wild Swans sequel - and the backlash from Beijing

Some 34 years after Wild Swans took the world by storm, Jung Chang resumes her story.

Book of the Day: The Four Spent The Day Together by Chris Kraus

Honest to a fault about determining truth of events, Chris Kraus produces a page-turner.

Book of the Day: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows by Steven Pinker

There’s more to common knowledge than meets the eye, writes Steven Pinker.