By Tilly Lloyd

Predict 25 new classics from Aotearoa New Zealand publishing since the year 2000, still in print—a nice calm low-GI project that won’t piss anyone off. I pour my first Laphroaig of the job; a handy GPS in the rabbit warrens of Aotearoa New Zealand lit.   

We loosely defined classics as richer more nuanced books that will stand the test of time, are significant, probe our national psyche, shape us as Aotearoa New Zealand readers or inform other writers.

A book’s re-discovery and ongoing resonation is a bit tricky to pin down. It’s bigger than a backlist-hunger or an excited tip off by writers, or booksellers, or reviewers. Remember when Kate De Goldi introduced us to Sydney Bridge Upside Down by David Ballantyne (Text Publishing edition, 2012)? She said “Sydney Bridge Upside Down is the great unread New Zealand novel—a gothic thriller, a coming-of-age story and a sinister family tragedy.” Until then it had slumbered 44 years, about the same length of time as American writer John Williams’ Stoner waited post publication before becoming a bestseller. 

I find myself running a huge 25-year bestseller report on Unity Book’s remote desk. The front page is pretty hectic but I read avidly from the back.

I slip the kids’ and poetry to the side. Slip them back in. Because, resonance. Every time I’m in a restaurant I think of Vincent O’Sullivan’s Lucky Table. Every time I catch a cab I think of Mahy. No. Take them out, just for this project; it’s already unwieldy. So, no children’s books or poetry. This listicle is fiction, and the fiction here has enough exceptionality and substance and gravity, no matter the oxygen levels of the future. I toss the spreadsheets aside. 

The project produces other tensions too: first, some of the fiction-most-likely-to-become-classics were published before the year 2000; and second, the inevitability of rockstar dominance, that old solid canopy of authors with long tracks and awards. There are more than 25 rockstars of Aotearoa NZ fiction, and everyone sees whippy under-canopy too. 

At least another 25 novels nudged to get through—and may well have if I were at a larger, luckier table and with an older Laphroaig. 

1. The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox, Te Herenga Waka University Press/Michael Joseph. A daringly complex, epic fantasy about a revenge killing, a mysterious scroll box that has survived centuries of fires, and the book that changed everything. “Lessing, Le Guin, Knox.” Pip Adam

2. Auē by Becky Manawatu, Mākaro Press. “The best book of 2019 – and it really is immense, a deep and powerful work, maybe even the most successfully achieved portrayal of underclass New Zealand life...” Steve Braunias, Newsroom

3. The Author’s Cut by Owen Marshall, Penguin Random House. “From human kindness to powerful nastiness, from beauty to dreariness, there’s a whole lot packed into this collection. ‘Coming Home in the Dark’ is a lively and rich read. Don’t fly into a rage and drop the book, don’t storm away from the Volvo. Keep reading.” Charlotte Grimshaw, Newsroom

4. The Axeman's Carnival Catherine Chidgey, Te Herenga Waka University Press. “I love the way the author ratchets up the sense of impending violence on a back-country farm, effortlessly crossing back and forth between the human world and the wild magpie world … It’s a ripping yarn, and it’s changed the way I look at birds in the countryside – the ones who are looking at me, anyway.” Don McGlashan, The Spinoff

5. Billy Bird by Emma Neale, Vintage. “Grief is the emotion that throws all others into relief, stripping away ego and pretentions. Novels that revolve around grief are not rare. But what Emma Neale has managed to produce in her Ockham Awards shortlisted novel, Billy Bird, certainly is: an often witty, frequently whimsical, domestic novel about a family whose pain is pulling them apart.”

Tilly Lloyd is a director and former manager of Unity Books Wellington, presently gardening and being a general bookaholic in Nelson.