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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.
ReviewThis fascinating book by three painting conservators invites readers on art detective missions to explore the backs of 33 paintings, ranging from 14th century artworks to the prese...
Reviewed by Peter Carter
13 April 2021
ReviewCouples in last-chance therapy, friends unfriending, racist trolls trawling the comments section for game — this collection of poems is concerned with the things that make us feel.
Reviewed by Paula Green
12 April 2021
ReviewOriginally self-published in 2015, this remarkable crime novel, which won the 2016 Ngaio Marsh best first novel award, has now inspired a TVNZ series. Here’s why.
Reviewed by Greg Fleming
12 April 2021
ReviewWhen war broke out between the British Empire and the Boer republics in 1899, New Zealand was among Britain’s most enthusiastic supporters. But, for a people whose involvement in c...
Reviewed by David Littlewood
7 April 2021
ReviewMaurice Shadbolt’s journalism and his demolition of the myths surrounding the Gallipoli campaign with his ground-breaking play Once on Chunuk Bair are central to Philip Temple’s se...
Reviewed by David Hill
7 April 2021
Review‘It’s material, make a story out of it,’ was the mantra Charlotte Grimshaw grew up with in her famous literary family. But when her life suddenly turned upside-down, she needed to ...
Reviewed by Linda Herrick
5 April 2021
ReviewAuthor: Paul Cleave. Reviewer: Greg Fleming. Cameron and Lisa Murdoch are successful crime-writers. They have been on the promotional circuit, joking that no-one knows how to get a...
Reviewed by Greg Fleming
5 April 2021
ReviewJoy Cowley is one of New Zealand’s most beloved writers. She’s written books for all ages and won lots of awards. But you wouldn’t have thought that could happen if you’d known her...
Reviewed by Dionne Christian
5 April 2021
ReviewWhen Wendyl Nissen's mother was suffering with Alzheimer's, she told some extraordinary stories about her background that Wendyl had never heard before. Determined to get to the b...
Reviewed by Caroline Barron
31 March 2021
ReviewDomestic violence is the leading cause of death by homicide for women in Aotearoa New Zealand yet an estimated 76 per cent of incidents go unreported. In HER SAY, survivors tell t...
Reviewed by Carole Beu
29 March 2021
ReviewA novel about finding your calling, the extraordinary nun Mother Mary Joseph Aubert, and the realities of religious bigotry in late-19th century New Zealand where short chapters a...
Reviewed by Link Pickering
29 March 2021
ReviewThe Covid-19 lockdown in New Zealand caused fear, hardship and loss. Through this time of unprecedented national hardship, however, there emerged incredible stories of hope and opt...
Reviewed by David Gadd
24 March 2021
ReviewEach year Poetry New Zealand, this country’s longest-running poetry magazine, rounds up important new poetry, reviews and essays, making it the ideal way to catch up with the lates...
Reviewed by Harry Ricketts
22 March 2021
ReviewOn We Go belongs to the emerging forms of ecological thinking that cross genres and scientific disciplines, speaking directly about global warming and the perils facing the natural...
Reviewed by Kiri Piahana-Wong
17 March 2021
ReviewAt the edge of the world awaits the adventure of a lifetime – but will the lessons of the past be enough to save twins Zoe and Seth? Only time will tell.
Reviewed by Jessie Neilson
15 March 2021
ReviewOut of a modest beginning grew the most formidable professional club entity rugby has ever seen. Matt McIlraith explores the club's first 25-years, dissecting key moments, the suc...
Reviewed by Ali Ikram
15 March 2021
ReviewAuthor: Ingrid Horrocks. Reviewer: Hannah Tunnicliffe.Beautiful, surprising, mysterious, deep and reflective, Where We Swim is a book that is much like the bodies of water we never...
Reviewed by Hannah Tunnicliffe
10 March 2021
ReviewTwelve extraordinary tales of disappearance: a collection of true crime writing by New Zealand's award-winning master of non-fiction is a riveting, one-sitting read.
Reviewed by Greg Fleming
10 March 2021
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ReviewAuthor: Vincent O’Sullivan. Reviewer: Paula Green. Things OK with you? is Vincent O’Sullivan’s first collection of poems since Being Here: Selected Poems (2015) and And So It Is: N...
Reviewed by Paula Green
8 March 2021
ReviewIn Bluffworld we are taken through the bildung of a master-bluffer, from his early days spent plagiarising student essays to his magisterial later lectures on the opening sentence ...
Reviewed by David Hill
8 March 2021
ReviewAn epic fantasy set in a land of sultans and kings, sumptuous palaces... and slave markets. When Elowen and her brother are seized by pirates and sold, separately, in the slave mar...
Reviewed by Link Pickering
8 March 2021