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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.
ReviewIf I were to review Always Italicise: how to write while colonised as a tweet it would be a row of fire emojis.
Reviewed by primoz2500
22 November 2022
ReviewThere’s nothing like Dame - and this Dame is exceptional! What a delight to discover Gaylene Preston can tell stories on paper just as effectively as on film.
Reviewed by primoz2500
21 November 2022
ReviewSimon Gault: No half measures is an unflinching look at success, failure - and fixing things fast.
Reviewed by André Taber
17 November 2022
ReviewTauhou is an inventive exploration of Indigenous families, womanhood, and alternate post-colonial realities by a writer of Māori and Coast Salish descent.
Reviewed by Jane Lowe
16 November 2022
ReviewAuthor: Paul Cleave. Reviewer: Greg Fleming.So far, 2022 has been a year rich for locally penned thrillers. Just in time for Christmas comes Paul Cleave’s The Pain Tourist to a...
Reviewed by Greg Fleming
16 November 2022
ReviewMaking Space is an impressive recent release billed by its publisher Massey University Press as ‘a new book that sets the architectural record straight.’
Reviewed by Penny Lewis
9 November 2022
ReviewHonest, authentic and truly refreshing, Kai is a cookbook that makes me proud to be an Aotearoa/New Zealand food writer.
Reviewed by Lauraine Jacobs
7 November 2022
ReviewIn A Month at the Back of my Brain, Kevin Ireland's understated, easy familiarity is at the heart of his measured and very engaging memoir as he gently reminds us lives are not nec...
Reviewed by Graham Reid
2 November 2022
ReviewTe reo translation.
Reviewed by primoz2500
31 October 2022
ReviewLinked through recurring characters and themes, the haunting stories in Kōhine hurtle us into the streets of Tokyo and small-town New Zealand. The secular city of salarymen, sex wo...
Reviewed by Elizabeth Heritage
31 October 2022
ReviewIn Tarquin the Honest, his first novel for adults, award-winning YA author Gareth Ward has delivered a quick-witted, fantastical tale packed with magic, action, and a cast of memor...
Reviewed by Mollie Chater
26 October 2022
ReviewEditors: Arcia Tecun, Lana Lopesi and Anisha Sankar. Reviewer: Ruth Smith.A search for new ways to talk about race in Aotearoa New Zealand brings together a powerful group of s...
Reviewed by Ruth Smith
25 October 2022
ReviewDavid Howard’s latest substantial collection, Rāwhao: The Completed Poems, sees him pull together 150 poems wide-ranging in topic that span 1975 to today.
Reviewed by Erica Stretton
23 October 2022
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ReviewAuthor: Dr Hine Elder. Reviewer: Siena Yates.In Wawata: Moon Dreaming, Dr Hinemoa Elder, author of Aroha, New Zealand's top-selling non-fiction title of 2021, shows us how to re...
Reviewed by Siena Yates
19 October 2022
ReviewScott Bainbridge’s latest true-crime offering centres around one Robert Gardner - a used car salesman, born in London, whose offending reached to all corners of the globe.
Reviewed by Greg Fleming
19 October 2022
ReviewThe Axeman's Carnival is Catherine Chidgey at her finest - comic, profound, poetic and true.
Reviewed by Hannah Tunnicliffe
17 October 2022
ReviewIt's almost inevitable that the biography of a committed writer becomes a narrative of desk, bent head, queue of titles. It happens here sometimes but Hickin quickens the story wit...
Reviewed by David Hill
17 October 2022
ReviewRoll & Break is a collection full of surprises, and a celebration of the beaches at the heart of our Aotearoa life.
Reviewed by Erica Stretton
16 October 2022
ReviewIn The Doctor’s Wife, Fiona Sussman builds a world of restrained mannerisms with behaviour set to implode, where the new anxious energy abounds.
Reviewed by Jessie Neilson
12 October 2022
ReviewDrink, Smoke, Snort, Stroke has unintentionally been 60 years in the making. It’s not a self-help book, nor is it ‘touchy feely’… it’s simply an honest, occasionally hilarious, rea...
Reviewed by primoz2500
10 October 2022
ReviewBlack and White does justice to Ross Taylor’s remarkable career in an entertaining and engaging way. It will enthrall cricket aficionados but has the depth and richness for a much ...
Reviewed by Michael Burgess
10 October 2022