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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.
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Review'It is dense. It is modern. It contains some of the best of Aotearoa’s new and not so new writers...'
Reviewed by Claris Harvey
17 December 2025
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Review'Thirty years of Pikihuia Awards has created space for voices that might otherwise go unheard...'
Reviewed by Savannah Patterson
10 December 2025
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Review'The narratives of any home always appeal more than descriptions of it, and THE SPIRIT OF A PLACE offers an abundance of events, crises, anecdotes, even jokes...'
Reviewed by David Hill
30 November 2025
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Review'Resistance, in a multitude of forms, could very well be the collection’s central theme. Barford’s own, beautiful voice comes across strongly in the poems, yet this is a collection...
Reviewed by Hebe Kearney
25 November 2025
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Review'Reading Hoods Landing feels like sliding into the middle seat of a packed van bound for a funeral. Everyone is talking at once, you’re not entirely sure how you’re related to the ...
Reviewed by Mairātea Mohi
23 November 2025
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Review'The past, with its bush memories, is always there, ‘lapping at her shins’...'
Reviewed by Jessie Neilson
19 November 2025
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ReviewDavid Hill muses on the Victorian collector-type in this review of THE COLLECTOR, a biography of Thomas Cheeseman.
Reviewed by David Hill
17 November 2025
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Review'...her poetry was notable for its clarity, refinement, economy and engagement with the landscape of Southland and Otago. It was sometimes dismissed as too regional, too sentimenta...
Reviewed by Graham Reid
11 November 2025
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Review'Iti’s life, which for most of his adulthood has been sketched out broadly in the media and exist in the public domain, gains a new urgency and freshness...'
Reviewed by Jade Kake
6 November 2025
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Review'Main character Caris Ironside is badass. Unconventional, trained as a blacksmith and swordsperson, Caris has a mission...'
Reviewed by Nicola and Eliana Johnstone
4 November 2025
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Review'Shapiro’s writing is artful and assured, and Good Things Come and Go is a heartfelt exploration. It weighs up what could have been, and what really matters...'
Reviewed by Clare Travaglia
3 November 2025
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Review'...a way of talking about what matters to us most, but telling it slant. And the result is rich, complex, skittish and intelligent...'
Reviewed by Sarah Scott
2 November 2025
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Review'Harriet's voice, understated, measured, and eloquent, is clearly of an educated, privileged woman. She often writes metaphorically...'
Reviewed by Jessie Neilson
27 October 2025
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ReviewOckham finalist author Bryan Walpert is back with EMPATHY, his tenth novel. Anna Scaife investigates.
Reviewed by Anna Scaife
23 October 2025
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Review'Whitham has meticulously gathered her collection of images of native and introduced New Zealand species with the hope that a reader will look anew at our natural history and its d...
Reviewed by Jessie Neilson
21 October 2025
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Review'Her story, which is quite remarkable in the years before she turned 20, becomes even more so when – after the Chicks go their separate ways – she becomes an award-winning solo art...
Reviewed by Graham Reid
19 October 2025
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Review'Horrocks’ characters have a self-aware physicality to them, whether they are at home in their bodies or not. Visuals of pregnancy, the visceral animal qualities of birth and its a...
Reviewed by Claire Williamson
14 October 2025
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Review'This book encourages close reading and gifting - between poems, collections, poets, and generations. The writing is rich and complex, yet offered in a way accessible to anyone wit...
Reviewed by Nicola Andrews
14 October 2025
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Review'This book is a monumental work on an important part of our history...'
Reviewed by David Veart
8 October 2025
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ReviewBecs Tetley takes a long look at STRONG WORDS 4, a collection of twenty essays selected by editor Lynley Edmeades from the Landfall 2023 and 2024 essay competitions.
Reviewed by Becs Tetley
8 October 2025
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Review'These words and phrases don't tell you only about our language. They're insights into our culture, both high and low. The 'Bugger' of that Toyota ad is here. So is 'hua', used so ...
Reviewed by David Hill
5 October 2025