NEW RELEASES (11.9.25)

All your choices are good! Take your pick from our selection of books straight out of the carton, and click through to our website to secure your copies. We can dispatch your books by overnight courier or have them ready to collect from our door.

How to Dave Democracy in Aotearoa New Zealand by Geoffrey Palmer $30
Unfortunately we need this book now more than we ever thought that we would — and we need it more by the day. In this timely and provocative book, Sir Geoffrey Palmer draws on his experience as former Prime Minister, Minister of Justice, and Attorney-General to get people thinking about the state of New Zealand’s democracy. Palmer offers rare insights into the machinery of power and its vulnerabilities, and rather than surrendering to pessimism, he presents a roadmap for renewal. At a time when authoritarianism rises globally and the rule of law faces unprecedented threats, Palmer’s message is clear: ordinary citizens hold the key to democratic revitalisation through civic engagement and vigilance. This collection of thoughtful essays challenges readers to reclaim their role in governance. Palmer argues that regardless of which parties hold power, without public awareness and participation, democratic institutions will continue to weaken. [Paperback]
>>Why this book is necessary now.

Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy $40
Arundhati Roy's first work of memoir, is a soaring account, both intimate and inspirational, of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her complex relationship to Mary Roy, the extraordinary, singular mother she describes as "my shelter and my storm."  "Heart-smashed" by her mother Mary's death in September 2022 yet puzzled and "more than a little ashamed" by the intensity of her response, Roy began to write, to make sense of her feelings about the mother she ran from at age eighteen, "not because I didn't love her, but in order to be able to continue to love her." And so begins this astonishing, sometimes disturbing, and surprisingly funny memoir of the author's journey from her childhood in Kerala, India, where her single mother founded a school, to the writing of her prizewinning novels and essays, through today. [Paperback]
>>What to make of the mother who made you.
>>A fugitive childhood.
”Brave and absorbing. In this remarkable memoir, the Booker-winning novelist looks back on her bittersweet relationship with her mercurial mother. The world described in the first part of the book provides much of the material for The God of Small Things. But these pages aren't significant for giving us access to Roy's inspiration, or as a preamble to her life as a bestselling writer who would go on to become an oppositional political voice. Even if she were none of these things or had never written her novel, they would be utterly absorbing. They have a wonderful, self-assured self-sufficiency.” —Guardian

House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk (translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones) $42
A woman settles in a remote Polish village. It has few inhabitants, but it teems with the stories of its living and its dead. There’s the drunk Marek Marek, who discovers that he shares his body with a bird, and Franz Frost, whose nightmares come to him from a newly discovered planet. There’s the man whose death – with one leg on the Polish side, one on the Czech – was an international incident. And there are the Germans who still haunt a region that not long ago they called their own. From the founding of the town to the lives of its saints, these shards piece together not only a history but a cosmology. Another brilliant ‘constellation novel’ in the mode of her International Booker Prize-winning Flights, House of Day, House of Night is a brilliantly imaginative epic novel of a small place upon which a whole universe pivots, a novel that interweaves vignettes of history, recipes, gossip, and mythology, reminding us that the stories of any place, no matter how humble, are fascinating and boundless, and await any of us with the imagination to seek it. [Paperback with French flaps]
>>Also available in this edition (due very soon).
>>Other books by Olga Tokarczuk.

It’s What He Would Have Wanted by Nick Ascroft $25
What would he have wanted? As little fuss as possible. But, reading between the lines: a little help. All the latest gossip and complaints. An arse that is not wrong. Opulence. One leap from the rope ladder. The final word.
It’s What He Would’ve Wanted is the sixth book of poetry from the author of the acclaimed The Stupefying. In this hilarious and affecting new work, Nick Ascroft writes of lost friends, new frailties, new braveries, and being stuck in an organ pipe during a recital and not wanting to bother anyone about it. Yes, there are poems of cycling into dead-end utility holes but also poems of trembling resolve and arriving at work as aged as the night sky after completing the morning school drop-off. One section of the book is titled ‘Just ad nauseum’. This is possibly the best collection yet by one of the most exciting and mercurial poets writing in Aotearoa today. [Paperback]
”Nick Ascroft is good at Scrabble and indoor football. Does this make him an excellent poet? Annoyingly ... yes.” —Shayne Carter
”Ascroft's poems are unsanctimonious, witty, deeply humane comments on the compromises that comprise life, the bargains we make with ourselves, each other, and our egos and neuroses to get through the day.” —Rebecca Hawkes
”Nick Ascroft is a wonderfully adroit poet. They're not always an easy read, these poems, but they're always a rewarding one.” —Harry Ricketts

A Year with Gilbert White, The first great nature writer by Jenny Uglow $65
In 1781, Gilbert White was a country curate, living in the Hampshire village he had known all his life. Fascinated by the fauna, flora and people around him, he kept journals for many years, and, at that time, was halfway to completing his path-breaking The Natural History of Selborne. No one had written like this before, with such close observation, humour, and sympathy: his spellbinding book has remained in print ever since, treasured by generations of readers. Jenny Uglow illuminates this quirky, warm-hearted man, 'the father of ecology', by following a single year in his Naturalist's Journal. As his diary jumps from topic to topic, she accompanies Gilbert from frost to summer drought, from the migration of birds to the sex lives of snails and the coming of harvest. Fresh, alive and original — and packed with rich colour illustrations — A Year with Gilbert White invites us to see the natural world anew, with astonishment and wonder. [A very nice hardback]
”Uglow makes us feel the life beyond the facts.” —Guardian
”Few can match Uglow's skill at conjuring up a scene, or illuminating a character.” —Sunday Times
”Uglow's style is supremely elegant and often amusingly bathetic, her research exhaustive but lightly worn.” —Financial Times
>>Look inside.
>>Other outstanding biographies by Jenny Uglow.

Olveston: Portrait of a home by Jane Ussher (photographs) and John Walsh (words) $85
A large, sumptuously beautiful and lovingly made book about a large, sumptuously beautiful and lovingly made historic house: Olveston in Dunedin. Built in 1907 by David Theomin, a wealthy merchant and one of Dunedin's accomplished Jewish businessmen of that era, Olveston’s opulence reflects the economic power that was concentrated in Dunedin at the start of the 20th century. Theomin and his wife Marie were ‘cultured’ people who travelled a great deal and the house is full of items brought back from abroad, as well as valuable furniture and significant paintings, including by Frances Hodgkins, who they supported early in her career. The beautifully cared-for house is now in public ownership and open for tours. Olveston: Portrait of a home, evocatively photographed by Jane Ussher, documents its exquisite rooms full of treasures. [A beautiful large-format hardback]
>>Look inside the book!
>>Go inside the house.
>>On making the book.

Edges of Empire: The politics of immigration in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1980—2020 by Francis L. Collins, Alan Gamlen, and Neil Vallelly $50
Since 1980, the peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand have fundamentally changed through new policies and new patterns of migration — from a largely Pākeha population with 10 per cent Māori in 1980 to today's megadiversity, with new residents from Asia, the Pacific and the rest of the world. Immigration has had a profound impact on New Zealand's society, economy, and place in the world. Edges of Empire is an in-depth account of the social, political and economic context within which these transformations in policy and population took place. Drawing on interviews with fifteen former Ministers of Immigration, this book reveals the intricacies of politics and policy-making that have led to New Zealand's relatively open and economically driven approach towards migration. Written by three leading social scientists, Edges of Empire provides an insightful account of who is included in Aotearoa New Zealand and under what conditions. [Paperback]
”Edges of Empire is the first book-length study to chronicle the evolution of migration policy governance in Aotearoa New Zealand in the neo-liberal period, against the backdrop of treatymaking involving Māori and complex external relationships with peoples of the Pacific Islands. It boldly responds to the challenge to migration scholars to attend to the colonial in multiple sites and at different scales. The book is also unique in its use of interviews with successive ministers of migration to centre the analysis. In all these ways, Collins, Gamlen and Vallelly have produced a highly original and timely scholarly intervention.” —Leah F. Vosko, FRSC, Distinguished Research Professor of Political Economy, York University
”Drawing on the personal accounts of successive Ministers of Immigration, Edges of Empire offers a unique analysis of New Zealand's migration policies. At its core, the book outlines how the politics of markets, multiculturalism, and an enduring imperial agenda has shaped migration over the past forty years. It is also one of those rare accounts that threads the Crown's relationship with tangata whenua in unfolding immigration histories. Collins, Gamlen and Vallelly adeptly blend academic thoroughness and storytelling to deliver an immersive and thought-provoking critique of New Zealand's contemporary migration.” —Rachel Simon-Kumar, Professor and Co-Director, Centre for Asian and Ethnic Minority Health Research and Evaluation, University of Auckland

Matapēhi by William Shakespeare (translated from English by Te Haumihiata Mason) $40
He kōrero i whiria ki te pōuri me te toto, e miramira ana i te hiahia tangata: ko Matapēhi, te whakaari a Wiremu Hakipia, kua whakaorangia ki te reo rangatira. Ko te kupu i tīkina rawatia i te ngākau, i te whatumanawa hei kōpaki i te whakaaro o te tangata, ahakoa rere taua whakaaro rā ki hea, he kupu kua āta tāraia e tōna kaitārai. Katoa ngā āhuatanga kua whakarārangitia e Wiremu Hakipia ka rangona mai i ngā kaupapa e ngau tonu ana i ēnei rā. Ko Matapēhi he whakaari mō te mauri whakakite, te hiahia, te tōwhare; mō ngā whaea rangatira me ngā kīngi; mō ngā ruahine taki i te ‘rererua, matarua, maikiroa ē’; mō te ao i kīia ai te kōrero ‘he pai te kino, he kino te pai’. Nā, kua ora mai anō te pakitūroa pōuriuri, whakawai i te hinengaro, kua tuhia ki te reo Māori e te mātanga kaiwhakamāori, e Te Haumihiata Mason. Nāna anō i puta ai Te Rātaka a Tētahi Kōhine, me te reo aroha o Rōmeo rāua ko Hurieta ki te reo Māori. He tamāhine nō ngā maunga tapu o Ruatoki, he atamai ki te raranga rerenga. Nāna i whakahauora ngā kupu a Hakipia kia kawea ake ai a Matapēhi ki tētahi ao hōu. He taonga tēnei mā te hunga kaingākau ki te reo o Hakipia, ki te reo rangatira, ki te korakora hoki ka rere i te pānga o ngā ao e rua. I tēnei putanga reorua, ka takoto ngātahi te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā; e rere tahi ana te ia o te kōrero, me he awa rua: motuhake te ia, tūhono te rere, kī tonu i te mauri o te kupu. He aho mārama kei ia reo, e kitea ai he hōhonutanga hōu i tērā rā. A reo Māori translation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth: a gripping tale of ambition and betrayal, prophetic visions and dripping blood. Shakespeare’s Scottish play is a tale of prophecy, ambition and murder; of lairds and ladies and kings; of witches, cauldrons and of ‘double, double, toil and trouble’ — all in a world where ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’. Now, this dark and captivating classic is brought to life in te reo Māori by the doyenne of reo Māori translators — Te Haumihiata Mason. The force behind the translations of The Diary of Anne Frank and Romeo and Juliet, a daughter of Rautoki and a master of her craft, she breathes new life into Shakespeare’s language and carries Macbeth to a new realm of rhythm, power and poetry. This book is a treasure for lovers of Shakespeare and te reo Māori alike, and of the alchemy that sparks where they meet. This dual-language edition places Māori and English side by side, moving through the play like twin currents: distinct, entwined and alive with meaning. Each language casts its own light, revealing fresh depths in the other. [Paperback]

My Sister by Emmanuelle Salasc (translated from French by Penny Hueston) $40
One summer's day in 2056 in the mountains of southern France, a warning siren goes off- inside the belly of the receding glacier above the spa-centre village, a large pocket of water under pressure is about to give way-just as it did 150 years ago, when hundreds of people died in the floods of debris and water. This is a novel about fear, an ancestral, collective fear about environmental disaster, and the narrator Lucie's fear about her twin sister Clemence, who has returned after a thirty-year absence. Salasc intensifies the psychological suspense as she tracks the sisters' relationship between the past and the present. Clemence claims she is on the run, but Lucie still doesn't know whether she can trust her sister. The two women shelter together beneath the glacier, waiting for the worst, surviving on dwindling supplies, alone above the evacuated village. Does Clemence's determination to control Lucie mean confronting the ultimate catastrophe? My Sister is a spine-chilling slow-burn story of sibling rivalry and climate change, offering us a profound examination of the future of our relationship with nature — as well as with those close to us. [Paperback]
”With its sparse elegance, psychological acuity, and environmental resonance, My Sister is a novel of remarkable subtlety and power.” —NZ Booklovers
>>By the same author under her previous name.

Rākau: The ancient forests of Aotearoa by Ned Barraud $35
This beautifully illustrated and handsomely packaged guide to the evolution, habitats and variety of the rākau (trees) and ngahere (forests) of Aotearoa for young readers is written and illustrated in Ned Barraud’s hallmark accessible, informative and captivating style. Featuring gatefolds and framed throughout by core mātauranga Māori and the expertise of curators at Te Papa, Rākau takes young readers from pre-history to the present day. It introduces key species and highlights the significance and use of different native trees and the impact of humans on their vitality. Ideal for both the library and home, this engrossing book helps young readers discover what makes our rākau so special and worthy of our care. [Hardback]
>>Look inside.

South by South: New Zealand and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration by Charles Ferrall $50
Joseph Kinsey is not a name many of us know — or not as well as we know the name Robert Falcon Scott. But from his base in Christchurch, Kinsey — book and art collector, philanthropist, science enthusiast, businessman — forged deep connections with the Antarctic expeditions and the explorers themselves through his tireless work as the agent for various expeditions. Two other New Zealanders also formed close friendships: Charles Bowen, a former politician, and Wellington lawyer Leonard Tripp, to whom Shackleton declared: 'I love you as David and Jonathan loved.' South by South tells the story of New Zealand's role in 'the Heroic Age', that wave of exploration beginning at the end of the nineteenth century in which men set out to traverse the continent of Antarctica and, if they survived, to bring home their findings. The members of this New Zealander triumvirate were all believers in the British Empire, but the southern voyages were to an uninhabited land. South by South brings to light many letters, newspaper articles, and pieces of official correspondence, much of which has not been published before, during the five expeditions of 1901-1916: the Discovery, Nimrod, Terra Nova, Aurora, and Endurance. In particular, Scott's letters to Kinsey and Shackleton's to Tripp tell of their hope, despair, exhaustion, and deep gratitude for their friendship. What they and the explorers wrote was influenced by nineteenth-century adventure stories which conveyed the Imperialist ideals of the time. If the impending conflict of 1914—18 was a very 'literary war', this was very literary exploration. [Paperback]