1 The Valley: Crime and Punishment in a New Zealand City by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $40)

The most important book of 2026? 

2 One Last Question, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (HarperCollins, $40)

“The part-memoir, part-political history retraces the five decades Soper spent working in parliament’s press gallery, chaptered by the 12 prime ministers who ruled the roost throughout his working career. From Robert Muldoon to Christopher Luxon, no one is spared from Soper’s honest thoughts or the insider gossip he’s collected on them – though one particular Labour leader cops far more flak than most.” Read the rest of The Spinoff’s Lyric Waiwiri-Smith’s review of Soper’s memoir, here.

3 All Her Lives: Nine Stories by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)

Exquisite, deft, award-winning short stories.

4 Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (Viking Penguin, $38)

Another poignant yet somehow sharp banger from Strout.

5 No Pit Stops by Grant Baker (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)

The life story of business guy Grant Baker.

6 John of John by Douglas Stewart (Picador, $38)

From the writer of the heartbreaking but sublime novel, Shuggie Bain. Here’s a snippet from Yagnishsing Dawoor’s review in The Guardian: “Set within a tight-knit Free Presbyterian community of farmers, weavers and fishers in what appears to be the 1990s, John of John tells the story of Cal’s uneasy homecoming. It’s a reprise of the parable of the prodigal son and an ardent exploration of the half-lives of queer men condemned to love, pine and suffer in silence. Intimate yet epic in scale, it contains equal parts pastoral drama, tale of familial fracture, love story and inquiry into various forms of loneliness: the loneliness that can reside between fathers and sons, between lovers, between man and God, and between a small place and the big world.”

7 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (Fourth Estate, $37)

Time travelling trad wife.

8 Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-Zi (Scribe Pubs Pty, $38)

Winner of the International Booker Prize 2026!

9 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Penguin, $28)

The people can’t get enough of this alien optimism.

10 Empire of AI by Karen Hao (Penguin, $35)

When Karen Hao appeared at Auckland Writers Festival recently she mentioned that an AI resistance website was coming … and now it’s here!

WELLINGTON

1 The Valley: Crime and Punishment in a New Zealand City by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $40)

2 One Last Question, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (HarperCollins, $40)

3 All Her Lives: Nine Stories by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)

4 Zines NZ: Punk to Present by Bryce Galloway (Massey University Press, $60)

An impressive history of Aotearoa zines which map histories of fringe resistance and art and ideas.

5 Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (Viking Penguin, $38)

6 No Pit Stops by Grant Baker (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)

7 Platform Decay by Martha Wells (Tor Books, $38)

The latest muderbot diary.

8 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Michael Joseph, $38)

The epistolatory novel of the moment.

9 John of John by Douglas Stewart (Picador, $38)

10 The Good Settler: Essays from Other People’s Lands by Richard Shaw (Massey University Press, $40)

“Growing numbers of Pākehā find themselves standing on restless ground these days,” writes Richard Shaw, “they, too, are seeing things differently, and in these pages you will also hear their voices as we reach — fitfully and painfully, individually and collectively — for an accommodation with our colonial past.”