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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.
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
ReviewA lovely soft dreamy art-poetry partnership by Saskia Leek and Lynley Edmeades gently elevates domestic life.
Reviewed by Linda Herrick
17 May 2022
ReviewA horrifying twist early on turns this book into a taut domestic thriller … Slow Down You’re Here is smart, of and about Aotearoa here and now, and provocative in its politics and ...
Reviewed by Dionne Christian
11 May 2022
ReviewAuthor: Robert Sullivan Reviewer: David Eggleton.Robert Sullivan's poems navigate by portents, and by the stars, to thrill and inspire us. April 2022 release
Reviewed by David Eggleton
10 May 2022
ReviewA genre-bending work of autobiographical fiction from one of Aotearoa’s fiercest and most versatile artists.
Reviewed by Angelique Kasmara
9 May 2022
ReviewMichael Steven’s Night School reads like a nostalgic time-travelling acid-soaked road-trip, formed of fragments of clarity that stab sharply out of the haze of the years between hi...
Reviewed by Dan Rabarts
4 May 2022
ReviewPainter poet Gregory O’Brien’s extremely handsome new collection, House & Contents, brings together the two modes (45 poems, 23 paintings) and encourages us to contemplate them, to...
Reviewed by Harry Ricketts
2 May 2022
ReviewAuthor: Janet Charman. Reviewer: Siobhan Harvey. Crafted, woven with feminist ideology and navigating the intersections of memory, gender and politics, Janet Charman’s The Pistils ...
Reviewed by Siobhan Harvey
26 April 2022
ReviewAnzac Nations: The Legacy of Gallipoli in New Zealand and Australia is a fascinating and timely book.
Reviewed by David Littlewood
25 April 2022
ReviewNature Boy: The Photography of Olaf Petersen probably stands as one of the most thorough and comprehensive monographs on a New Zealand photographer and one hopes it will inspire si...
Reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton
20 April 2022
ReviewChris Long’s memoir, The Boy From Gorge River, is a boy’s own adventure yarn that will appeal to teenage boys and armchair adventurers of all ages.
Reviewed by Allison Balance
18 April 2022
ReviewRaiment seduces us with its historical reenactments and leaves us eager to read the next instalment of a life bravely lived by a woman who, in the poetic adage of the time, took th...
Reviewed by Siobhan Harvey
13 April 2022