The top 10 sales lists recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.
AUCKLAND
1 Dirty Work: The Taxpayers’ Union and New Zealand’s Hard Right by Nicky Hager (Potton & Burton, $35)
Absolutely no surprises that Hager’s latest deep dive is still number one. You can listen to The Spinoff’s own Toby Manhire chat with Hager about Taxpayer’s Union’s response to his work, criticisms of Hager’s approach and more. Read here and listen below.
2 End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World by Astra Taylor & Naomi Klein (Allen Lane, $40)
Queen Klein is back with another astute and urgent analysis of the times we’re living in. Here’s the publisher’s blurb: “The far right is on the march again – but this time it’s different. A new, apocalyptic alliance of religious fundamentalists, billionaire Silicon Valley tech kings and ethno-nationalists is on the move. They’re united in their belief that some kind of cleansing cataclysm is coming, and they welcome a future of shocks, scarcity and collapse, convinced they’ll be among the saved on the other side.
In this blistering reckoning with our age, Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor take us deep into this man-made Armageddon complex – and show us how to resist it. Around the globe, they investigate how those who are making our world unliveable are preparing to protect themselves from the fallout, whether it’s by repairing to luxurious private islands, or bunkering nations against a dehumanised ‘other’.
If we’re to meet this critical moment and defend what’s left of democracy before it’s smashed up beyond repair, Klein and Taylor argue, we must break the doom loop, and tell a story not of end times – but of better times.”
3 Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (Viking Penguin, $38)
Shortlisted for the Booker!
4 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Michael Joseph, $28)
A love letter to letter writing.
5 Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros (Hachette, $55)
Limited and deluxe and hardback even.
6 May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (Granta UK, $35)
“We are wrong about plastic fruit, and possibly tenderness,” writes Jack from Unity Books. “Rebecca Perry’s enigmatic novel renders both in surprising detail through striking lean paragraphs which feel, appropriately, like peeking through a window into a fascinating and strange room. May We Feed The King follows a curator who is dressing the rooms of a former palace for its 750th anniversary. While researching the former inhabitants of the building she loses herself in the life of a former king who had little appetite for rule. I gobbled the book up in a flash.”
7 Farewell to Eden by Sebastian Faulks (Hutchinson, $38)
Another blazing epic from Faulks. Here’s the blurb: “Philip Deval, a soldier recently returned from the beaches of Normandy, arrives in Palestine on a peace-keeping mission in the final days of the British Mandate. The Sea of Galilee glitters in the distance as war-weary troops marvel at the novelty of oranges and sun – a paradise that belies a fierce new conflict about to erupt.
Some years later, Philip begins work teaching at a school in the English countryside and meets the enigmatic music mistress, Frances Darwood. Over long evenings spent listening to records in her music room, they grow close. But Philip is a changed man, and must confront the secrets and scars of all he has lived through – which threaten, even now, to upend his future.”
8 Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War’s Most Extraordinary Spy by Ben Macintyre (Viking Penguin, $40)
“Drawing on never-before-seen material from archives in multiple countries, and interviews with officers from MI6 and MI5, the KGB and CIA, Redwood lifts the lid on how espionage really works, and on an unknown and highly significant Cold War victory.”
9 End of Everything by John M. Harrison (Serpents Tail, $33)
A thrilling post-apocalyptic adventure.
10 London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador, $40)
But still clinging on!
WELLINGTON
1 Dirty Work: The Taxpayers’ Union and New Zealand’s Hard Right by Nicky Hager (Potton & Burton, $35)
2 U.X.O. by Brannavan Gnanalingam (Lawrence & Gibson, $30)
Last weekend saw Verb Festival celebrate authors from all over the country and beyond. You can see the impact on this here list as 90% of books featured in the festival’s programme. Gnanalingam’s powerful new page-turner of a novel is explained in the author’s own terms, right here on The Spinoff.
3 That Woman: A Memoir by Sylvia Cartwright (Allen & Unwin, $50)
Dame Sylvia Cartwright was hilarious! Wellington audiences packed out the Hannah Playhouse to hear her speak with Anna Fifield about an incredible life’s work often got through thanks to a wicked sense of humour.
4 HIDE by Rebecca Hawkes (Nga Pukapuka Pekapeka, $35)
Verb’s opening night saw a gorgeous performance of this illuminated manuscript complete with cello accompaniment composed especially for the text.
5 Te Kaikaukau: The Swimmer by Witi Ihimaera Smiler (AUP, $45)
Ihimaera Smiler was utterly regal in his event with Puawai Cairns: an unstoppable icon who has just released his follow-up novel to The Whale Rider, called The Star Path.
6 The Valley of Unlikely Acquaintances by Terri Te Tau (Spoor Books, $38)
One of the great sci-fi, time travel novels to come out of Aotearoa. Te Tau shared a stage with Lauren Keenan and Hana Buchanan in a brilliant conversation about how the past informs the stories we tell today and tomorrow.
7 The Valley: Crime & Punishment in a New Zealand City by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $40)
Asher Emanuel appeared on stage at Verb with Aaron Smale and Māni Dunlop in a profound conversation about systems and solutions.
8 Pākehā Metaphysics by Murdoch Stephens (Lawrence & Gibson, $30)
Murdoch Stephen’s latest, fascinating deep dive launched alongside U.X.O. at Unity Books as part of Verb.
9 Said the Dead by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (Faber, $38)
Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize! Ní Ghríofa appeared on stage via video link with Noelle McCarthy in a wonderful session about Our Lady’s of Cork, an institution that haunts Said the Dead and McCarthy’s Stakes alike.
10 Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser (Text, $38)
One of Australia’s most acclaimed writers was a hit at Verb: her conversation with Kate Duignan was funny, fascinating and reframed what a novel can do and be (much like this astounding book, Theory & Practice).
