The best-seller chart at Unity Books for the week just ended: September 2
WELLINGTON STORE
1 The Sympathizer (Corsair, $28) by Viet Thanh Nguyen
This powerful novel, which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, has been in the top 10 for months, and now climbs to number one in both of Unity’s stores. Word of mouth keeps spreading.
2 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird
Poems.
3 Can You Tolerate This? (Victoria University Press, $30) by Ashleigh Young
“The New Zealand essayist” was once perhaps the most loathsome of all local literateurs; so many were windy old pedants, chin-strokers, fence-sitters, thumbs-downers; but today the most exciting prose being written in New Zealand is by this Wellington writer and first-rate essayist.
4 Lecretia’s Choice: A Story of Love, Death & the Law (Text, $37) by Matt Vickers
Homage & advocacy.
5 Nutshell (Jonathan Cape, $38) by Ian McEwan
Publisher’s blurbology: “Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She’s still in the marital home – a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse – but not with John. Instead, she’s with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude, and the two of them have a plan. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy’s womb…”
6 The 78-Storey Treehouse (Pan Macmillan, $18) by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
Fun.
7 House Without Windows (Harper Collins $35) by Nadia Hashimi
Afghanistan.
8 Selected Poems of Jenny Bornholdt (Victoria University Press, $40) by jenny Bornholdt
Subjects include thoughts on whether or not to get around to burying that old placenta next to the peas in the deep freeze.
9 Complacent Nation (Bridget Williams Books, $15) by Gavin Ellis
Is it OK, that political risk determines whether official information requests are supplied?
10 Silencing Science (Bridget Williams Books, $15) by Shaun Hendy
Polemic by a teacher at the Department of Physics and the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland.
AUCKLAND STORE
1 The Sympathizer (Corsair, $28) by Viet Thanh Nguyen
2 Tide: The Science and Lore of the Greatest Force on Earth (Viking, $40) by Hugh Aldersey-Williams
Water.
3 Can You Tolerate This? (Victoria University Press, $30) by Ashleigh Young
4 Things That Matter: Stories of Life & Death from an Intensive Care Specialist (Allen & Unwin, $37) by Dr David Galler
Death.
5 The Girls (Chatto & Windus, $37) by Emma Cline
American novel, much praised.
6 Complacent Nation (Bridget Williams Books, $15) by Gavin Ellis
7 Tail of the Taniwha: A Collection of Short Stories (Beatnik Publishing, $30) by Courtney Sina Meredith
New Zealand short fiction, much praised.
8 White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World (Text, $37) by Geoff Dyer
“Who are the most important writers in the room?”, he asked, when he attended a literary party in Auckland. He was sat next to Emily Perkins.
9 Hot Milk (Hamish Hamilton, $37) by Deborahy Levy
“This vivid follow-up to the Booker-shortlisted Swimming Home tackles identity, obsession and duty”: The Guardian.
10 Bright Edge of the World (Tinder Press, $38) by Eowyn Ivey
“The novel centers on an 1885 wilderness expedition in which Colonel Allen Forrester is tasked with mapping Alaska’s northern interior, leaving his pregnant wife, Sophie, on her own at Fort Vancouver”: Publisher’s Weekly.