What we read in October
I read two books for book clubs this month and Tangi was the first. Despite being published over 50 years ago now, this devastating novel of one young man's grief after his father's unexpected death feels like it could have been written in 2024. Informed of his Father's death, Tama returns from Wellington to the East Coast, to the centre of his childhood, his marae, his iwi, his whānau, for the three day tangi, with the weight of family expectations on his shoulders. Tangi is many things - a gorgeous lamentation on the love of father and son, an ode to a lost part of rural New Zealand an a heartbreakingly poetic novel that holds a very special place in our collective history.
There's a Cure for This by Emma Espiner
The second book club book moved me in unexpected ways. Emma Espiner decided to become a doctor after a career in journalism and around parliament. Despite having a small baby, she threw herself into medicine in what it's quite obviously a broken medical system. Graduating as a junior doctor just in time for COVID, Espiner writes eloquently and enticingly on our country, our future, her childhood in Wellington and Golden Bay, the pandemic and a broad range of related topics. Part memoir, part essay collection, this is well worth a read and we will engage any book group in a lively discussion.
Following immediately on from the events at the end of Manawatu's hugely successful and award winning debut Auē, Kataraina is the story of Kat, the aunt who takes in the children Taukiri and Ārama. Intimate yet sprawling, Kataraina's life from birth to the future are supported by lush descriptions of the kūkūwai, the wetlands that are so integral to her whānau and her tīpuna. Manawatu also takes us back over 100 years, to the Māori woman who murders a man on the site of Kat's home, an event that will have repercussions for generations. This is a work of great talent and Manawatu once again shows her storytelling stripes. A beautiful and powerful read.
Read Tangi, There's a Cure for This and Kataraina as book club sets.
Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud by Lee Murray
The nine-tailed fox spirit, the húli jīng of Chinese mythology must live nine lives before she can ascend to the gods. As the inhabiter and narrator, she lives the lives of nine Chinese migrant women to Aotearoa New Zealand, women who have been sidelined, murdered, forgotten or driven to suicide over our history. Murray remembers these women, often barely footnotes in history, in poignant and haunting ways. One of my top books of 2024.
The Grimmelings by Rachael King
Men keep vanishing from the lakeside near Ella's home, including her father and grandfather, and now a local boy, and Ella is afraid she and her family are cursed. Rich with language, myth and fairytale, Rachael King's brings the Scottish water horse spirit the kelpie to our own lakes in this enchanting and powerful story of loyalty, love, family and belief for horse mad children (and adults).
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
In a sprawling house in the Dutch countryside, Isabel lives alone. As children, she, her mother and two brothers came to the house as refugees from bombed out Amsterdam, but now, her mother is dead. Isabel's tightly curated life revolves around keeping her beloved house and contents, including the hare patterned china in immaculate condition. But when one of her brothers deposits his latest girlfriend at the house while he is overseas for work, Isabel's narrow existence threatens to spill over. Part psychological thriller, part torrid love story, The Safekeep kept me guessing until the last page.
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
Strout's two universes collide as Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton meet in Crosby, Maine, where their mutual friend lawyer Bob Burgess comes to the aid of a man accused of murdering his mother. These books, these people, hold such a place in my reading heart. To have Olive and Lucy on the same page is very special. This is a warm hearted and honest book about humans and our failings, our loves and our meaningless little lives. I loved it.
If you've never read an Elizabeth Strout novel, start with Olive Kitteridge.
The Masquerades of Spring by Ben Aaronovitch
Ever since we first met Peter Grant's enigmatic mentor Thomas Nightingale in the first Rivers of London, I've been wanting, craving a Nightingale back story. Aaronovitch takes this now seminal urban fantasy series back to New York in the jazz age, where English wizard Augustus Berrycloth-Young, escaping from some youthful misdeeds in Old Blighty, has set up. When a magical saxophone washes up in the speakeasys of the city that never sleeps, Gussie and The Nightingale set out to investigate. Aaronovitch does Wodehouse in this rollicking fun read.
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
One of my colleagues described Harlem Shuffle as a 'novel about nothing'. Which is partially true. Nothing world changing happens here, but for furniture salesman Ray Carney, just trying to get by in 1960s Harlem, a knock at the door from his cousin Freddie is enough to tip the scales from honest, into shady. Whitehead is a master of the word, evidenced by his two Pulitzer Prizes. Here his touch is a little defter as he describes the steaming and riotous streets of largely black Harlem, a place still segregated, if not by law then by society, money, class and colour. Harlem Shuffle is an immersive, atmospheric and hugely satisfying heist novel of revenge and lounge suites.
