New Books We Recommend - Fiction

From one of Britain's most important writers, An Honourable Man is set in the tumultuous world of late Victorian England. Beginning in the Sudan and London of 1884, this extraordinary new novel is played out against the shambolic end of the Empire. Slovo draws on the lives of two real men: Charles Gordon, an heroic, hubristic, career army man whose refusal to obey orders helped bring down the Gladstone government, and W T Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, the father of tabloid journalism. Their story is intercuts with the tal... read more

When Charles Saint-Beuve, a French literary journalist met Victor Hugo, an ambitious young writer who intended to become famous, he was swept into a world of grand emotions, a world where words can become swords. But it is not Victor he is really attracted to - it is his wife Adele. Soon the two lovers are on the edge of a great scandal and a wounded Victor must exact his price for betrayal, a price that will change the lives of so many, including his own children. As Saint-Beuve - a man like no other man - struggles to hold on to ... read more

Seventy-year-old Percy Darling is settling happily into retirement: reading novels, watching old movies, and swimming naked in his pond. But his routines are disrupted when he is persuaded to let a locally beloved preschool take over his barn. As Percy sees his rural refuge overrun by children, parents, and teachers, he must reexamine the solitary life he has made in the three decades since the sudden death of his wife. With equal parts affection and humor, Julia Glass spins a captivating tale about a man who can no longer remain a... read more

"Marvelous. . . . A delicate, nuanced, socially conscious story of one family's near-destruction, and how a slew of seemingly bad moves reconnects it." - "USA Today " "An enchanting story of familial bonds and late-life romance. Expect to be infatuated with Glass's protagonist ... he of generous soul, dry wit, and courtly manners." - "O, The Oprah Magazine " "Fans of "Three Junes "will find this fourth novel just as absorbing. It's like reading an involving letter from a long-lost friend." - "People " "This energized, good-humored novel . . . approaches the ties of kinship with the same ..read more

A spellbinding and wise coming-of-age story from Canadian Frances Greenslade, Shelter draws readers into the precarious world of two young sisters in search of their mother, and brings to life a breathtaking BC landscape.Maggie is a born worrier who really believes that trouble comes in threes and that threats to her family's cozy but fragile life in Duchess Creek are never far. For reasons she doesn't understand, her father favours her over her carefree older sister, Jenny, and takes her on outings to the bush where he shows ... read more

A gorgeously written, The English Patient-style novel about the real-life romance between the war photographers Robert Capa and Gerda Taro during the Spanish Civil War.
Love, war and photography marked their lives. They were young, anti-Fascist, good-looking, and nonconformist. They had everything in life, and they put everything at risk. They created their own legend and remained faithful to it until the very end! A young German woman named Gerta Pohorylle and a young Hungarian man named Endre Friedmann meet in Paris in 193... read more

The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman's most ambitious and mesmerizing novel, a tour de force of imagination and research, set in ancient Israel. In 70 C.E., nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman's novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different pat... read more

Ragnarok is the story of the end of the world. It is a tale of the destruction of life on this planet and the end of the gods themselves. What more relevant myth could any modern writer find? As the bombs rain down in the Battle of Britain, one young girl is evacuated to the countryside. She is struggling to make sense of her new wartime life. Then she is given a copy of Asgard and the Gods - a book of ancient Norse myths - and her inner and outer worlds are transformed. How could this child know that fifty years on many of the bir... read more

This is a new part of an old story: 1930s Berlin, the threat of imprisonment and the powerful desire to make something beautiful despite the horror. Chip told us not to go out. Said, don't you boys tempt the devil. But it's been one brawl of a night, I tell you. The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymous Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, was arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. And he was black. Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero's bandmate and the only witne... read more

"Packs a powerful emotional punch... Fine writing, subtle characterisation and a convincing portrayal of place and period mark out this engaging first work, reminiscent of early VS Naipaul' - Guardian 'Edugyan's language is supple, wry and at turns sensuous. This intricately worked narrative heralds an excellent new voice' - Chris Abani, author of GraceLand"

Hot sex, anywhere, anytime, anyone? Here is the hottest, raunchiest collection of romance, love, fantasy and - let's be honest - sex. Designed to tantalise and tease, these quirky adult-only tales are sensual and surprising, always imaginative and unashamedly risque. Featuring a sex addict, a Spanish percussionist, a topless gardener, a Kiwi farm-hand, virgins, prostitutes, ballerinas, college research assistants, new ladettes and a spanking dominatrix; these racy affairs, illicit liaisons, and kinky propositions will have you hot,... read more

Marion Flint lives alone on the wild west coast of New Zealand's North Island. One day she meets a small boy, Ika, on the empty, rugged beach, and an unlikely friendship begins between the Swedish doctor and the solemn child with webbed feet and a fear of being touched. As Marion's involvement with Ika deepens she is forced to revisit her own lonely childhood in Sweden, where neglect and a destructive home environment had deadly consequences. But Marion's most deeply buried hurt is that she had to lose the love of her life twice ov... read more

This third collection of short stories by Alice Tawhai explores the complex mix of beauty and heartache, resilience and joys of people living in seemingly bleak situations. The perceptions of people and their lives are fresh and poignant, seeing the humanity and quiet hope alongside the darkness. The vivid imagery and intensely evocative writing make each story and those in them hauntingly memorable.

Auckland, June 1886. Ngati Wai chief Paratene Te Manu spends long sessions, over three long days, having his portrait painted by the Bohemian painter Gottfried Lindauer. Hearing of Lindauer's planned trip to England reminds him of his own journey there, twenty years earlier, with a party of northern rangatira. As he sits for Lindauer, Paratene retreats deeper and deeper into the past, from the triumphs in London and their meetings with royalty to the disintegration of the visit into poverty, mistrust, and humiliation. Based on a true story

'Paula Morris writes of an international New Zealand. Her work slips effortlessly and naturally across time zones and hemispheres, criss-crossing themes of race and culture with a cool, knowing style and claiming an ethnic territory that's all her own . . .' Kirsty Gunn

Forecast: Turbulence is a breathtaking and exquisitely lyrical collection of nine short stories and one memoir piece from Janette Turner Hospital. Featuring a compelling and enigmatic cast of characters - a loner obsessed with the beautiful face of a neighbour; a militant religious cult; the mute skipper of a whale-watching boat; a teenager who hasn't set eyes on his father since the breakdown of his parents' marriage; the daughters of a charming family man (and paedophile); a child and his grandmother sitting out a hurricane; two ... read more

From the heathered fells and lowlands of Cumbria with their history of smouldering violence, to the speed and heat of summer London, to an eerily still lake in the Finnish wilderness, Sarah Hall evokes landscapes with extraordinary precision and grace. The characters within these territories are real-life survivors, but whether it's a frustrated housewife seeking extreme experience or a young woman contemplating the death of her lover, dark devices and desires rise to the surface. And the human body, too - flawed, visceral, and ful... read more