This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias
FICTION
1 To Italy, With Love by Nicky Pellegrino (Hachette, $34.99)
News from Italia this week: A car parked in the same spot for almost 50 years is now a tourist attraction. A grey Lancia Fulvia has become a mainstay out the front of a newsstand in Conegliano, in the country's Veneto region. The owner of the classic car, 94-year-old Angelo Fregolent, parked the vehicle outside the business which he ran with his wife in 1974. When the couple retired, they left the vehicle on the street. It's pictured below.
2 She's a Killer by Kirsten McDougall (Victoria University Press, $30)
"She’s a Killer is such an engrossing page-turner that 200-odd pages passed me by in a flurry before I even realised. And the action hadn’t even started yet. It’s no mean feat to sustain a reader’s attention over 399 pages but McDougall does just that by smartly eking out tension and deftly unfolding the narrative at a sly pace, all the while keeping us on our toes. I never quite knew where she was about to take us and it’s a heart-pumping thrill of a ride from start to finish": from a rave review by Kiran Dass of one of the year's most enjoyable novels.
3 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35)
4 Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Victoria University Press, $35)
5 The Last Guests by JP Pomare (Hachette, $34.99)
6 The Chinese Proverb by Tina Clough (Lightpool Publishing, $34.99)
Crime novel by the Swedish-born author who now lives in Napier.
7 Loop Tracks by Sue Orr (Victoria University Press, $35)
"Charlie is 16 and pregnant. It's 1978 and New Zealand is tentatively moving towards the recognition that abortion just may be a woman’s right to choose. The Auckland Medical Aid Centre, the only clinic in New Zealand offering abortion, opened in 1974, but following the 1977 Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act, it's been forced to close. But the Sisters Overseas Service helps girls to travel to Australia for abortions. Charlie’s parents use their savings as well as borrowing a large sum of money to pay for a return flight to Sydney, and an abortion at a Sydney clinic. But the plane is delayed for hours. Charlie sits waiting with other girls also booked at the same clinic. She gets off the plane…": from a rave review by Paddy Richardson of one of the year's most powerful novels.
8 Double Helix by Eileen Merriman (Penguin Random House, $36)
"Jake Heremaia knows he has a high likelihood of having inherited a fatal illness. Huntington’s disease killed his mother and has plagued his extended family. Double Helix asks us to consider: how do you learn to live with the knowledge that your genetics may be a ticking time bomb? How do you plan for the future, build a relationship, and think about having a family, with a genetic sword of Damocles forever dangling above your head?": from a rave review by Tiffany Matsis of one of the year's most powerful novels.
9 The Piano Girls by Elizabeth Smither (Quentin Wilson, $35)
"Smither's short stories introduce us to a cast of middle-class, well-meaning characters with prim names like Eloise or Antonia. They drink nice wine and some of them are writers. They read books by literary authors like Karl Ove Knausgård and Anthony Doerr. And she views them with a sympathetic but sometimes hard-edged eye. There’s a sort of itchy anxiety and pathos that runs through these stories. And humour, too. In 'Baking Night', a woman tries to stave off the advances of an eager suitor by baking when he visits her one evening, creating a space between them": from a rave review by Kiran Dass one of the year's best collections of short fiction.
10 The Pink Jumpsuit by Emma Neale (Quentin Wilson, $35)
A rave review of the Dunedin writer's latest collection of short fiction will appear soon in good old ReadingRoom.
NON-FICTION
1 Salad by Margo Flanagan & Rosa Flanagan (Allen & Unwin, $45)
2 Lost and Found by Toni Street (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
3 Sonny Bill Williams by Sonny Bill Williams & Alan Duff (Hachette, $49.99)
4 Tikanga by Keri Opai (Upstart Press, $39.99)
5 After the Tampa by Abbas Nazari (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
6 Dish by Sarah Tuck (McKenzie Publishing, $45)
7 The Forager’s Treasury by Johanna Knox (Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
8 The Edible Backyard by Kath Irvine (Penguin Random House, $50)
9 Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $30)
10 Worse Things Happen at Sea by John McCrystal (David Bateman, $39.99)
The author recounts stories of disasters in New Zealand waters, including the 1968 sinking of the Wahine; but surely no one has written a better story than the New Zealand Herald reporter who was onboard, and somehow kept his wits about him to file an eye-witness report for the paper immediately after he survived the tragedy. Iain Macdonald, father of journalist Finlay Macdonald, wrote: "From the boat deck rail - which was leaning at about 40 degrees - I saw one lifeboat jam-packed with old folk, women and children, splash into the water. Thank God I missed seeing it capsize a few minutes later.
"The Wahine gave another lurch and the sea began washing round my feet as I stood against the rail. 'Jump' yelled a crewman. I climbed on to the rail, pondered jumping for a split second, then thought of that heaving mass of metal leaning over the water. I changed my mind and tried an outward dive.
"I surfaced near a half-submerged rubber raft and was half-floated, half-dragged into its watery saucer. Glancing up, I saw the bulk of the Wahine looming over us. At that moment she heeled even further, threatening to roll right over and take us down with her.
"All round me men were trying desperately to paddle rafts away from the ship's side with pieces of driftwood and their bare hands. But each heaving wave threw us back under her.
"Then someone in our raft scooped a floating plank from the sea and half-punted, half-paddled us along the ship's side and out past the stern.
"Clear of the worst danger we were lucky enough to bump against a properly inflated raft. There seemed room in it for only our smallest, but most important passenger. This was a small baby being held clear of the water by its young father. As I took the crying bundle in its waterlogged blanket the father shouted to me: 'Just in case we don't make it, tell them her name is Judy Vaughan.'
"I passed the baby and message on board the safe raft and a few seconds later helped push the baby's mother on board as well…."
