Chosen for you by those in the know
Abookseller, two publishers and a writers’ festival director: who better to ask for recommendations on what to read as the days get shorter and temperatures edge towards winter? After all, words are their trade and they’re immersed in stories. They also deal in reading the signs, watching and listening and then predicting the “next big thing”.
Four New Zealand literary luminaries tell Geraldine Johns what’s trending, what they love and what to watch out for.
CAROLE BEU, OWNER, THE WOMEN’S BOOKSHOP
Ask Carole Beu about being an independent bookseller — she marks 30 years in the trade this year — and she’ll say people are going back to books: “They’re on their computers all day, so they don’t want to go home and read [a book] on screen.”
There’s also something about visiting bricksand-mortar premises and the sense of warmth and welcome and comfort offered, Beu says.
“Definitely, our customers have a sense of ownership of the shop.”
At the beginning, who would have known it would come to this? Not Beu, who left her safe teaching job to set up a feminist bookshop in the old Broadsheet premises on Dominion Rd in Mt Eden in 1989.
Given The Women’s Bookshop’s back story, it’s nicely coincidental that a recent trend Beu has noted is the resurgence in popularity of writings on feminism — by and for young people, in particular. It started with Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls series (the local equivalent is Barbara Else’s Go Girl: A storybook of epic New Zealand women).
Deborah Frances White’s The Guilty Feminist, which grew out of a podcast, highlights the renewed interest in feminism and a new route into publishing. Beu sees the trend of social media stars, who gain a huge following and are then asked to write a book, gaining momentum.
Another example is the forthcoming Magnolia Kitchen: Inspired Baking with Personality by Bernadette (Bets) Gee whose phenomenal popularity was partly fuelled by her stunning Instagram page. It’s doubtful whether Beu, now a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the literary industry, will find time to bake anything from the book, though.
She has “a New York skyline” of books beside her bed to read. She recently finished Womankind by Margie Thomson and describes it as a landmark New Zealand book for New Zealand women. Then there’s the young adult novel My Brother’s Name is Jessica by John Boyne, who’s visiting Auckland for the annual writers’ festival (there’s quite a lot of transgender material about, she adds) and she’s eagerly awaiting Elizabeth Smither’s forthcoming novel Loving Sylvie.
FERGUS BARROWMAN, PUBLISHER, VICTORIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Something of an “accidental publisher”, Fergus Barrowman was a student and tutor in the English department at Victoria University when, in 1984, a role as part-time assistant to the editor of VUP came up and he applied.
“I started without any thought as to what I’d do with my life; I just took it. There was very little planning or foresight,” he recalls.
The death of the publisher a year later saw Barrowman apply for the top job.
“There was an innocent confidence of youth,” he says of the role he has now held for more than three decades. Being in the business for so long means seeing the return of some old favourites.
“One of my earliest publishing thrills was working with Barbara Anderson. This year, we’re doing the 30th-anniversary publication for her.”
As a reader and a publisher, Barrowman’s excited by the diversity of books now available and notes a continuation of the growth in memoir. It’s a global shift with local links reflected in Shayne Carter’s Dead People I Have Known — due in May — and Rose Lu’s book of personal essays on growing up as a Chinese New Zealander, All Who Live on Islands, due at the end of the year.
He’s looking forward to those along with Shirley Smith: An Examined Life — a biography of the trailblazing Wellington lawyer — by Sarah Gaitanos and Margot Schwass’ biography of Greville Texidor, the British-born writer who spent World War II in New Zealand.
More issues-based non-fiction is another emerging trend Barrowman sees, citing the independently published Bridget Williams Books Text series as an example. Books about climate change — something readers seem to be demanding more information about— are emerging as top sellers.
But Barrowman says publishing is unpredictable; he’s lucky that the outfit he heads has seen some good times with enduring favourites like The Vintner’s Luck by Elizabeth Knox and The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton.
“Those completely transform the financial results of a publisher for a year or two. If we had a big book like that every three or four years ...”
RACHAEL KING, PROGRAMME DIRECTOR, WORD CHRISTCHURCH
How better to test the state of the industry than as a judge for this year’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards?
Rachael King, one of the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize judges, says she and her fellow judges were impressed by the standard of local literary fiction writing and happy to see exciting new voices along with more experienced writers at the top of their game.
From a longlist of eight, they chose The Cage by Lloyd Jones, This Mortal Boy by Fiona Kidman, All This by Chance by Vincent O’Sullivan and The New Ships by Kate Duignan as the final four.
Like Beu, she’s also noticed online developments continuing to influence what and how we read. Take Bookstagram - Instagram accounts dedicated to books – which King describes as the perfect mix for the tech-savvy set.
“It combines social media with the love of selfies and the love of reading books.”
King agrees there’s a blurring of fiction and memoir that’s elbowing its way on to our bookshelves. She calls it auto-fiction — “fiction close to biography” — and notes lyrical memoirs or short novelisations of memoirs, mostly
written by women, with authors including Olivia Laing (Crudo), Rachel Cusk
(Kudos), Deborah Levy (The Cost of Living) and Sheila Heti (Motherhood) leading the way.
She says expect to see the continuation of books that have emerged from the MeToo movement: “These are about sexism and the rage in response to it — not just feminist nonfiction.”
And, along with auto-fiction, there’s a lot to love in the continuation of “terrific fiction” that tackles contemporary issues inventively like Sophie Mackintosh with The Water Cure or Sarah Moss in Ghost Wall. Included on King’s list of books she can’t wait to read are Marlon James’ Black Leopard, Red Wolf and Siri Hustvedt’s Memories of the Future, Carl Shuker’s A Mistake and Sharon Lam’s Lonely Asian Woman.
But King may be pressed for time to read these and all the others on her bookshelf, with events including the Auckland Writers Festival beckoning — “I always go because they have an incredible line-up of writers and I get to see all my friends” — and the WORD Christchurch autumn season, run in conjunction with the Auckland festival.
Then there’s her own writing. Excited to see younger people rediscovering books, as readers and as writers, she’s working on a children’s novel — one written in a similar vein to her award-winning 2012 Red Rocks, which took the Celtic myth of selkies (seal people) — and transplanted it to New Zealand.
CLAIRE MURDOCH, HEAD OF PUBLISHING, PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Along with Beu, Barrowman and King, Claire Murdoch agrees news of the death of the book has been greatly exaggerated and, after a decade of disruption, says it’s an exceptionally exciting time in New Zealand publishing.
Murdoch became head of publishing at Penguin Random House in August. That meant a shift from Wellington with her husband and two children, and while less than a year at the new address hasn’t been long enough to consider themselves Aucklanders, she says they’re loving it.
She predicts the international trend towards “thoughtful and reflective” books will continue to gain momentum.
“In our own market, there’s a huge trend towards creative non-fiction biography, essay and memoir.”
That trend extends to books for young people: “Seductive, illustrated books for children that engage their minds and senses and blur the line between storytelling and learning.”
One children’s book she is “super, superexcited” about is Gavin Bishop’s Wildlife of Aotearoa — out in October — which will build on the popularity of his 2017 Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story and last year’s Cook’s Cook.
(And speaking of cooking, Murdoch says cookery books with the emphasis on natural, nofuss, healthy and unpretentious eating are the newcomers in our kitchens.)
The self-confessed non-fiction nut says she’s looking forward to Poet Laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh’s Mophead — to be published by Auckland University Press. We can also expect some big international fiction with Cari Mora, the first book by Silence of the Lambs author Thomas Harris in 13 years; and Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments.
And how is The Testaments being promoted? A theatrical live stream on September 1.
Why? Because it’s another example of technology, books and reading joining forces — something, says Murdoch, that means print shares top billing with audiobooks and podcasts, with young audiences, in particular, reaching for their headsets to soak up stories — often when they are, literally, on the run.
“The combination of technological change and the appetite of young people are occasioning a boom in audio — and books are a part of that.”
We are, says Murdoch, redefining the warmth of having a story told that way.