The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.

AUCKLAND

1  The Quiet House by Paul Hewlett (Password Press, $25)

Headline reads: New Poetry Claims Number One Spot For Second Week Running. With scant information about The Quiet House in the monster that is Google, we can only assume that good ol’ word of mouth has powered this lush bestseller.

2  Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Random House Business, $40)

A mainstay on the list in 2022, as we decide that wearing sweatpants inside all day is a habit we should probably break. 

3  The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi by Ned Fletcher (Bridget Williams Books, $70)

Historian and lawyer Ned Fletcher has just released a groundbreaking analysis of the original purpose and vision of the Treaty of Waitangi. From the publisher’s blurb: “Through groundbreaking scholarship, Fletcher concludes that the Māori and English texts of the Treaty reconcile, and that those who framed the English text intended Māori to have continuing rights to self-government (rangatiratanga) and ownership of their lands. This original understanding of the Treaty, however, was then lost in the face of powerful forces in the British Empire post-1840, as hostility towards indigenous peoples grew alongside increased intolerance of plural systems of government.”

4  The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith (Sphere UK, $38)

The newest goliath – book six – in JK Rowling’s Strike detective series has been released to much controversy, as per. Social media is in a frenzy; it’s a bestseller nonetheless. 

5  Imagining Decolonisation by Rebecca Kiddle, Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton and Amanda Thomas (Bridget Williams Books, $15)

The littlest big bestseller, up and down the country.

6  Yes, Minister: An Insider’s Account of the John Key Years by Chris Finlayson (Allen & Unwin, $37)

Toby Manhire’s Gone Before Lunchtime pod with Chris Finlayson includes such treasures as “The moments his colleagues considered him a ‘geek and a ‘tosser’”, plus views on Trump, co-governance, the three water reforms, and (not) appearing on the cover of Women’s Weekly.

7  The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell (Knopf, $38)

A fictionalised account of the 16th-century Italian noblewoman Lucrezia di Cosimo de’Medici, of which The New York Times gave a searing review: “Murder and unwanted sex are primal drivers of narrative. In this novel the characters are so one-dimensional and overwrought that the force of neither driver lands. The novelist begins to resemble a conjurer forcing cards. Anyway, as Elizabeth Hardwick put it, ‘If I want a plot I’ll watch Dallas.’” 

Ouch! That must hurt. Luckily for Maggie O’Farrell, the reviewer didn’t like Hamnet either, which flew off the shelves and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.

8  Hundertwasser in New Zealand by Andrea Hirsch (Oratia Books, $70)

A shiny new illustrated art book for the coffee table, celebrating the life and work of Australian-born Aotearoa-phile Hundertwasser. Some context from the publisher, for those not nose-deep in Artland: “…Hundertwasser arrived in New Zealand in 1973, seeking refuge from a world out of kilter with nature. After travelling and exhibiting, he settled at Kaurinui, the land he bought and restored in the Bay of Islands. Wishing to unite ‘nature and art, art and life’, he was ‘never nearer to this unity than in New Zealand’. Hundertwasser in New Zealand is a richly illustrated and accessible account of the artist’s love of Aotearoa, his interaction with the people and land, and the influence these had on his work.” 

9  Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Picador, $25)

A new follow up to the time-travel cafe-set novel Before the Coffee Gets Cold – which Sam Brooks famously derided for being dull and mediocre on this very website. We petition Sam Brooks to do a follow up review. Largely for the lols.

Before Your Memory Fades sounds like a rehash of its predecessor: “another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of the cafe’s time-travelling offer.”

10  Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Grove Press, $25)

The only 2022 Booker Longlister to make the bestsellers as of yet, and rightfully so – it’s brill.

WELLINGTON

1  Kawai: For Such a Time As This by Monty Soutar (Bateman, $40)

Another exciting newcomer in at number one – the debut novel from historian Monty Soutar. A tantalising description from Bateman: “Tracing the author’s own ancestral line, Kawai: For Such a Time as This reveals a picture of an indigenous Aotearoa in the mid-18th century, through to the first encounters between Maori and Europeans. It describes a culture that is highly sophisticated with an immense knowledge of science, medicine and religion; proud tribes who live harmoniously within the natural world; a highly capable and adaptable people to whom family and legacy are paramount. However, it is also a culture illuminated by a brutal undercurrent of intergenerational vengeance, witchcraft and cannibalism.”

2  Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand by Nick Bollinger (Auckland University Press, $50)

It’s rave time. 

3  The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell (Knopf, $38)

4  Yes, Minister: An Insider’s Account of the John Key Years by Chris Finlayson (Allen & Unwin, $37)

5  The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi by Ned Fletcher (Bridget Williams Books, $70)

6  Regenesis:  How to Feed the World Without Devouring the Planet by George Monbiot (Allen Lane, $37)

Journalist and environmental campaigner George Monbiot has released a new book about a sustainable future for food through regenerative farming. Praise from his peers:

“George Monbiot is always original – both in the intelligence of his opinions and the depth and rigour of his research.” – Brian Eno

“A dazzling command of science and a relentless faith in people … I never miss reading him.” – Naomi Klein

7  Imagining Decolonisation by Rebecca Kiddle, Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton and Amanda Thomas (Bridget Williams Books, $15)

8  Fragments from a Contested Past: Remembrance, Denial and New Zealand History by Joanna Kidman, Vincent O’Malley, Liana MacDonald, Tom Roa and Keziah Wallis (Bridget Williams Books, $15)

Giving Imagining Decolonisation a run for its money.

9  New Zealand’s Foreign Service: A History edited by Ian McGibbon (Massey University Press, $60)

The perfect gift for the politico in your life.

10  The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen (Fitzcarraldo Editions, $25)

New novel about the Israeli Prime Minister’s father. There’s been a stunning (even overwhelming) review from The Guardian: “The first obligation, when turning to the work of the electrifying American writer Joshua Cohen, is to stress that he clearly is a genius. In his essays (Attention!) and stories (Four New Messages), and in novels such as Witz, Book of Numbers, Moving Kings and now The Netanyahus – a comic historical fantasia – a dizzying range of bookish learning and worldly knowhow is given rich, resourceful expression. Cohen, who turned 40 last September, has prompted all the desirable M-words (master, magus, major) as well as comparisons to Thomas Pynchon (justified) and David Foster Wallace (slightly lazy). While James Wood settles for calling him one of the most prodigious stylists at work in the US today, Nicole Krauss has flatly declared that nobody writing in English is more gifted.”