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 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $23)
This little gem, continuing to crown the Christmas tree that is (in our festivities-addled brains) the bestsellers list. Since it’s nearly Christmas, the list is absolutely chocka full of fiction this week, as we all get ready for some beach reading.
2 Straight Up by Ruby Tui (Allen & Unwin, $37)
The inspiring sports memoir of the year.
3 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Sort of Books, $37)
The Spinoff is all aboard the Seven Moons express this week! We’ve got a new review and an interview with the author. From Himali McInnes’ review: “The story is a fast-paced, entertaining romp feathered with magical realism; a ghost story peopled with souls who are exaggerated versions of their former selves; a political satire that cuts deep to the bone; and a love story. Like real life, it is painfully sad and gloriously messy, and there are no clear winners. The author’s hope is that in 10 years’ time, his book will be read as fantasy fiction by his compatriots, ‘because the Sri Lanka that they live in does not resemble this.’ Machan, I hope so too.”
4 The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
Catherine Chidgey’s new novel about a talking magpie who is adopted by a human, Marnie, and becomes an internet sensation. Kete Books reviews: “Clearly there is a wand-sweep of magic realism in the pages too, not just because it’s about a talking bird but also through Tama’s mother and brothers – ‘death by car, death by cold’ – who speak to him as ghosts. But despite the magic, fairy-tale and hint of fable, The Axeman’s Carnival is compelling and believable. The reader trusts that it is possible for a magpie to do and experience unusual, paranormal things because Chidgey has made Tama such a likeable and reliable narrator.”
5 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber & Faber UK, $37)
David Copperfield, brought forward into the world of opiate addiction, American poverty, social services, and trailer parks.
6 The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, $50)
We would describe The Passenger as “the newest Cormac McCarthy novel”, but as sister novel Stella Maris was just released, it’s simply no longer true. McCarthy has released two new novels after a 16 year break from publishing, at the tender age of 89.
The New York Times‘ two cents: “The Passenger is far from McCarthy’s finest work, but that’s because he has had the nerve to push himself into new places, at the age of all-but-90. He has tried something in these novels that he’d never done before: I don’t mean writing a woman (although there’s that), but writing normal people. Granted, these normal people are achingly good-looking and some of the smartest people in the world and they speak in lines, but they are not mythic. Or they are mythic but not entirely so. They have childhoods and stunted or truncated adulthoods. They go to restaurants and bars and visit their friends. I think those may have been my favorite parts, in fact, a handful of scenes in New Orleans restaurants, featuring good, pointless side characters, including a subtly drawn trans woman who seems to be in love with Bobby, and a work friend who explains to him what his problem is.”
7 Lessons by Ian McEwan (Jonathon Cape, $37)
Ian McEwan’s new novel, which plunges you through the life of Roland Baines; his stern military father and fragile mother; his much-too-young sexual relationship with his piano teacher; the sudden abandonment by his writer wife; his inability to accept the normalness of his life. Absorbing fiction that will leave you a little emotionally fragile.
8 Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $37)
New fiction by another of the greats, set between the World Wars in Soho’s glitzy underworld. Meredith of Goodreads is a fan: “I loved the setting, as Atkinson captures the feeling of 1920s London. From the gritty streets to the posh clubs to the dirty underbelly of the elite, I was transported. In addition, there are drugs, mob wars, the sex trade, the chase of fame and fortune, and murder to contend with.”
9 The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez (Granta, $23)
Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker after being translated from Spanish, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is a tad late to the Unity bestsellers party – but we’ll take it. Ishihuro named the short story collection “the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time”, and the publisher’s blurb sets a tantalising scene: “Welcome to Buenos Aires, a city thrumming with murderous intentions and morbid desires, where missing children come back from the dead and unearthed bones carry terrible curses. These brilliant, unsettling tales of revenge, witchcraft, fetishes, disappearances and urban madness spill over with women and girls whose dark inclinations will lead them over the edge.”
10 A History of New Zealand in 100 Objects by Jock Phillips (Penguin, $55)
Local history, fed to you piece by piece.
WELLINGTON
1 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Sort of Books, $37)
2 Lessons by Ian McEwan (Jonathon Cape, $37)
3 Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $37)
4 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $23)
5 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber & Faber UK, $37)
6 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday, $37)
A bestselling novel about a woman chemist set in 1960s California, that’s so much a bestseller it’s described as the “blockbuster of 2022” by the publisher. Many agree:
“Sparky, rip-roaring, funny, with big-hearted fully formed, loveable characters.” – The Sunday Times
“The most charming, life-enhancing novel I’ve read in ages. A perfect delight.” – India Knight
“Laugh-out-loud funny and brimming with life, generosity and courage.” – Rachel Joyce
7 Wawata – Moon Dreaming: Daily Wisdom Guided by Hina, the Māori Moon by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin, $30)
Your dose of moon wisdom for 2023, ready and waiting. From the bestselling author of Aroha.
8 The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
9 The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes (Bloomsbury, $35)
From the Financial Times: “Telling the 1,000-year history of a great state brings with it many pitfalls — especially if done in 300 pages. Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. The temptation to divine a red thread can often end in history being all too neatly organised in clearly separated eras and breaks.
“Orlando Figes is too experienced to fall into such traps. As well as being a professional historian and author of several acclaimed books on Russian history, he was also a witness to the critical moments in the dissolution of the Soviet empire. As such, his latest book, The Story of Russia, combines profound knowledge and understanding of the longer, deeper structural processes of history with the personal experience of an author seeking to understand what is happening on the ground today.”
10 Imagining Decolonisation by Rebecca Kiddle, Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton and Amanda Thomas (Bridget Williams Books, $15)
Our constant companion, all year long.