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Join the Kete community. Stay up-to-date on the latest in new books from Aotearoa, from reviews and events to giveaways.
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Join the Kete community. Stay up-to-date on the latest in new books from Aotearoa, from reviews and events to giveaways.
Read our independent reviews of the latest books from Aotearoa.
Pānuihia ā mātou arotakenga tūhake o ngā pukapuka hou nō Aotearoa.
ReviewReturn to Harikoa Bay features 33 stories in around 300 pages, each with an intricacy that makes it hard to believe they’re standalone works.
Reviewed by Sam Finnemore
22 August 2022
ReviewIn his third poetry collection, award-winning poet Tim Upperton takes us to the end of the driveway, over the Manawatū – twisting like an eel – and on to Topeka and Paris.
Reviewed by Erica Stretton
21 August 2022
ReviewLife in the Shallows is one of those immensely rewarding books where almost every page turns up a fascinating fact.
Reviewed by David Gadd
17 August 2022
ReviewA riveting thriller, grounded in our national disputes, but one that will echo with readers the world over.
Reviewed by Greg Fleming
15 August 2022
ReviewNaming the Beasts is a menagerie of poems about the gnarlier aspects of being a creature of this world.
Reviewed by Erica Stretton
15 August 2022
ReviewKidnap At Mystery Island, winner of the 2021 Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award, is the action-packed junior novel just released by Scholastic.
Reviewed by Alex Eagles
10 August 2022
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ReviewAuthor: Kate Camp. Reviewer: Linda Herrick. In these true stories, Kate Camp moves back and forth through the smoke-filled rooms of her life: from a nostalgic childhood of the 1...
Reviewed by Linda Herrick
8 August 2022
ReviewBeginning with the shock resignation of John Key, Blue Blood reveals the reasons behind one of the most dramatic falls in popularity in New Zealand's political history and tells th...
Reviewed by Dionne Christian
26 July 2022
ReviewAuthor: Jennifer Ashton. Reviewer: Dionne Christian.Thief, Convict, Pirate, Wife: The Many Histories of Charlotte Badger is historian Jennifer Ashton’s determined attempt to unrav...
Reviewed by Dionne Christian
14 July 2022
ReviewSimon Lendrum’s The Slow Roll is a brilliantly written and intriguing debut crime novel, set in Auckland and featuring two lead characters with intelligence and empathy who just le...
Reviewed by Greg Fleming
11 July 2022
ReviewKate De Goldi’s Eddy, Eddy is a a rollicking and thrilling readerly escapade.
Reviewed by Jessie Neilson
6 July 2022
ReviewWhat an astonishing thing Donovan Bixley has achieved in completing his accessible, playful portrait of Leonardo da Vinci after so many years’ research and work. A portrait of Leo...
Reviewed by Sarah Forster
4 July 2022
ReviewIdeals Are Like Stars is the remarkable true story of Yvette Williams, a trailblazing young athlete who defied the odds to win gold in the long jump at the Helsinki Olympics in 195...
Reviewed by Sarah Ell
29 June 2022
ReviewHistorical fiction writer Cristina Sanders is in her element regaling us with these imaginative tales. For adults and young adults alike, Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Gr...
Reviewed by Jessie Neilson
27 June 2022
ReviewGrow is a book with a seemingly modest premise that quietly and thoughtfully ends up addressing big issues with simple but insightful stories and ideas and a refreshing dose of hon...
Reviewed by Dionne Christian
20 June 2022
ReviewA Gentle Radical is a fascinating, inspiring and sometimes depressing read; Fitzsimons launched New Zealand’s first climate change campaign in the late 1980s. If the then governmen...
Reviewed by Holly Walker
15 June 2022
ReviewFull of pluck, courage and resourcefulness, Solo is for all those who long to wade through emerald rivers and breathe the mountain air.
Reviewed by Alex Eagles
14 June 2022
ReviewWith its detailed research, clarity of writing and richness of illustrations, A History of the Queen’s Redoubt and the Invasion of the Waikato sets the gold standard for how local ...
Reviewed by David Gadd
13 June 2022
ReviewAuthor: Laurence Fearnley. Reviewer: David Hill. As always, Laurence Fearnley's prose is precise, spare, springy with cadences of colloquial Kiwispeak, yet resonant with imager...
Reviewed by David Hill
30 May 2022
ReviewA well-written and evocative book; a fitting tribute to the author, and a fascinating record of music-making at a particularly fertile time for the arts in Aotearoa.
Reviewed by Richard Betts
25 May 2022
ReviewA compelling and 'deceptively delicate-looking pukapuka containing a reaching vastness.'
Reviewed by Elizabeth Heritage
23 May 2022