The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending May 9
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books' stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.
AUCKLAND
1 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, $30)
'Believe the hype,' said Unity Bookseller Eden Denyer in their review of this latest instalment of the Hunger Games.
2 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape, $26)
Samantha Harvey is touching down on Aotearoa soil any day now as the Booker Prize winner is starring in this year's Auckland Writers Festival.
3 Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Pan UK, $40)
From surviving shark attacks to surviving Meta, this is the exposé of the year. Read Julie Hill's review of Wynn-Williams' words on her previous place of work on The Spinoff.
4 Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (Serpents Tail, $30)
A mother-son story like no other.
5 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (Fourth Estate, $35)
Asako Yuzuki is also winging her way to Aotearoa for the Auckland Writers Festival and we hope she has a delicious time!
6 Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Fourth Estate, $38)
Auckland Writers Festival's digital event with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been cancelled ('due to unforeseen circumstances') and replaced by this one, which looks extremely different but extremely interesting.
7 Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow (Ad Astra, $37)
Doctorow did a whirlwind tour of Aotearoa over the weekend and brought hordes of fans to Unity's doors. Red Team Blues is a novel about a forensic accountant in Silicon Valley and crypto and crime.
8 Chokepoint Capitalism by Cory Doctorow & Rebecca Giblin (Scribe Publications, $37)
A huge deal when it came out in 2022, this nonfiction book is about what exactly chokepoint capitalism is and why it's choking us. Here's the blurb:
'In Chokepoint Capitalism, scholar Rebecca Giblin and writer and activist Cory Doctorow argue we're in a new era of 'chokepoint capitalism', with exploitative businesses creating insurmountable barriers to competition that enable them to capture value that should rightfully go to others. All workers are weakened by this, but the problem is especially well illustrated by the plight of creative workers.
By analysing book publishing and news, live music and music streaming, screenwriting, radio, and more, Giblin and Doctorow deftly show how powerful corporations construct 'anti-competitive flywheels' designed to lock in users and suppliers, make their markets hostile to new entrants, and then force workers and suppliers to accept unfairly low prices.
In the book's second half, Giblin and Doctorow explain how to batter through those chokepoints, with tools ranging from transparency rights to collective action and ownership, radical interoperability, contract terminations, job guarantees, and minimum wages for creative work.'
9 Better the Blood by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster, $27)
Brilliantly done crime novel from an Aotearoa king of crime (and guest curator at Auckland Writers Festival). Here's the blurb:
'Detective Senior Sergeant Hana Westerman is a tenacious Māori detective juggling single motherhood and the pressures of her career in Auckland's Central Investigation Branch. When she's led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man hanging in a hidden room. With little to go on, Hana knows one thing: the killer is sending her a message.
As a Māori officer, there has always been a clash between duty and culture for Hana, but it is something that she's found a way to live with. Until now. When more murders follow, Hana realises that her heritage and past are the keys to finding the perpetrator.'
10 Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden (Viking Penguin, $38)
A terrific, terrific novel that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024 and whose author is … you guessed it, appearing at next week's Auckland Writers Festiva l. Here's the blurb:
'It's 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is well and truly over. Living alone in her late mother's country home, Isabel's life is as it should be: led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep-as a guest, there to stay for the season…
Eva is Isabel's antithesis: sleeps late, wakes late, walks loudly through the house and touches things she shouldn't. In response Isabel develops a fury-fuelled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house-a spoon, a knife, a bowl-Isabel' suspicions spiral out of control. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel's paranoia gives way to desire – leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva – nor the house in which they live – are what they seem.'
WELLINGTON
1 The Art and Making of Arcane: League of Legends by Elizabeth Vincentelli (Titan Books, $99)
'The Art and Making of Arcane is an immersive journey behind the scenes of the Emmy Award-winning Animated Series!'
2 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, $30)
3 Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Pan UK, $40)
4 Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Lothian Children's Books, $25)
The fourth instalment in the absolutely brilliant fantasy series set in the world of Nevermoor. In this novel Morrigan Crow is about to turn 14 and her life is only getting more complicated: this hefty adventure includes finding lost family, a whole new part of Nevermoor we've never seen before, new friends as well as new enemies, and murder! A must-read series for ages seven to those who feel at least 700.
5 Amma by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)
Welcome back The Spinoff's best book of 2024 according to our readers!
6 The Cat Who Saved the Library by Sosuke Natsukawa (Picador, $25)
Another cosy, bookish, cat-filled novel to comfort you during the long, chilly months of winter.
7 The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing (Picador, $28)
Welcome back! This beautiful book marries memoir with research into the why and the what of gardens. Laing details the making and breaking of her own garden alongside research into what gardens and gardening means to humanity at large.
8 How to Be Enough: Seven Life-Changing Steps for Self-critics, Overthinkers and Perfectionists by Ellen Hendriksen (Bonnier, $40)
Phwoar. Attacked.
9 Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference by Rutger Bregman (Bloomsbury, $39)
Whoa! Double punch.
10 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia by Philippe Sands (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, $40)
'In 38 Londres Street, Philippe Sands blends personal memoir, historical detective work and gripping courtroom drama to probe a secret double story of mass murder, one that reveals a shocking thread that links the horrors of the 1940s with those of our own times,' reads the publisher's blurb. 'The house at 38 Londres Street is home to the legacies of two men whose personal stories span continents, nationalities and decades of atrocity: Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile, and Walther Rauff, a Nazi SS officer responsible for the use of gas vans.'
The Spinoff Books section is proudly brought to you by Unity Books and Creative New Zealand. Visit Unity Books online today.
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The Spinoff
5 days ago
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The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending May 30
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books' stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Air by John Boyne (Doubleday, $35) The conclusion to Boyne's four-part Elements Series and so far, so good over on Good Reads where 2402 ratings give it an average of 4.47 stars. 2 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape, $26) Last year's Booker Prize winner. This year's Booker longlist is due on 29 July. 3 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) The 2025 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction winner! My heart is still pumping after that hair-raising ceremony in which Wilkins was delayed until the very last moment when he literally ran onto the stage to make his acceptance speech. Read a day-after-the-night-before interview with Wilkins right here on The Spinoff. 4 Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane (Penguin Random House, $65) The people love Macfarlane and his nature writing. 5 M urriyang: Song of Time by Stan Grant (Simon and Schuster, $47) Remember when Stan Grant took the stage at Auckland Writers Festival's gala night and was simply outstanding? Grant is an indigenous Australian writer and journalist and an astonishing, moving storyteller. 6 1985 by Dominic Hoey (Penguin, $38) 'Reading it was just like being back in Auckland, growing up on the streets of Grey Lynn and hoping you might be able to scab some money off your mates and hit up the 562 Takeaway (made famous by appearing on the cover of Hoey's poetry collection 'I Thought We'd Be Famous'). OK, yeah, Hoey and I grew up in Auckland a few decades apart, but reading this felt like looking back on a childhood diary that myself or any one of my friends could have written.' Read more of The Spinoff's Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Claire Mabey's thoughts on this propulsive new novel, here. 7 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38) One of the bestselling books of 2024 looks to do the same this 2025. 8 Girl On Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Woman Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert (John Murray, $40) Here's the publisher's explanation: 'What happened to feminism in the twenty-first century? This question feels increasingly urgent in a moment of cultural and legislative backlash, when widespread uncertainty about the movement's power, focus, and currency threatens decades of progress. Sophie Gilbert identifies an inflection point in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the energy of third-wave and 'riot grrrl' feminism collapsed into a regressive period of hyper-objectification, sexualization, and infantilization. Mining the darker side of nostalgia, Gilbert trains her keen analytic eye on the most revealing cultural objects of the era, across music, film, television, fashion, tabloid journalism, and more. What she recounts is harrowing, from the leering gaze of the paparazzi to the gleeful cruelty of early reality TV and a burgeoning internet culture vicious toward women in the spotlight and damaging for those who weren't. Gilbert tracks many of the period's dominant themes back to the rise of internet porn, which gained widespread influence as it began to pervade our collective consciousness. The result is a devastating portrait of a time when a distinctly American blend of excess, materialism, and power worship collided with the culture's reactionary, puritanical, and chauvinistic currents. Amid a collective reconsideration of the way women are treated in public, Girl on Girl is a blistering indictment of the matrix of misogyny that undergirded the cultural production of the early twenty-first century, and continues to shape our world today.' 9 Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art by Deidre Brown & Ngarino Ellis with Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (Auckland University Press, $100) Winner of the Bookhub Award for Illustrated Nonfiction at this year's Ockham New Zealand Book Awards! Read about how the writers approached this ground-breaking book, here. 10 Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth (HarperCollins, $35) 'On the first morning of their holiday together in a remote part of Scotland, 42-year-old Sarah convinces her younger sister, Juliette, to clamber on to the roof of their mobile home for a better phone signal,' writes Shahidha Bari on The Guardian. 'Juliette has three layers of tinfoil wrapped around her limbs and a tinfoil cone hat plonked on her head before she clocks that she's fallen for a prank. It's a pleasing bit of sibling slapstick in Slags, the new novel from Emma Jane Unsworth about desire, dissatisfaction and the ferocious loyalty of sisters. And sisterhood, as Unsworth writes it here, is an unbreakable connection for which no prank antenna is needed.' WELLINGTON 1 Slowing the Sun | Essays by Nadine Hura (Bridget Williams Books, $40) Spinoff readers may well be familiar with Nadine Hura's insightful essays. This is an outstanding collection, a long time in the making. Here's what the publisher says: 'In the midst of grief, Hura works through science, pūrākau, poetry and back again. Seeking to understand climate change in relation to whenua and people, she asks: how should we respond to what has been lost? Her many-sided essays explore environmental degradation, social disconnection and Indigenous reclamation, insisting that any meaningful response must be grounded in Te Tiriti and anti-colonialism.' 2 This Compulsion In Us by Tina Makereti (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $40) What a week for Aotearoa books! Tina Makereti's long-awaited collection of nonfiction is exquisite. Read an excerpt from This Compulsion In Us on The Spinoff, here. 3 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) 4 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) The Auckland Writers Festival's bestselling book and the first in New Zealand to reach 1000 sales in 2025 (are you surprised by that number?). It's a stonkingly good tale about an alternate England of the 1970s. Sinister, thought-provoking and gripping. Read books editor Claire Mabey's review right here. 5 Wonderland by Tracy Farr (Cuba Press, $38) Tracy Farr fans rejoice! We've another compelling novel from the author of The Lives and Loves of Lena Gaunt, and The Hope Fault. Here's the blurb for Wonderland: 'Te Motu Kairangi Miramar Peninsula, Wellington 1912. Doctor Matti Loverock spends her days and nights bringing babies into the world, which means her daughters – seven-year-old triplets Ada, Oona and Hanna – have grown up at Wonderland, the once-thriving amusement park owned by their father, Charlie. Then a grieving woman arrives to stay from the other side of the world, in pain and incognito, fleeing scandal. She ignites the triplets' curiosity and brings work for Matti, diverting them all from what is really happening at Wonderland. In a bold reimagining, Marie Curie – famous for her work on radioactivity – comes to Aotearoa and discovers both solace and wonder.' 6 Tackling the Hens by Mary McCallum (Cuba Press, $25) Local hero Mary McCallum's latest poetry book tackles hens … 'Hens can be fun visitors, when they gossip and sunbathe and pop inside for a chat, but they can outstay their welcome and tackling them to send them home isn't easy,' reads the charming blurb. 'They aren't the only creatures in the pages of this book— there's Ursula the golden-eyed cat, a leporine emperor, singing mice and all the swallows! Then there are the people who interact with them: an entomologist in love with the spiders he observes, a builder who releases a trapped mouse, a woman who attracts bees as a flower does—and Mary and the hens, of course.' 7 The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Jonathan Cape, $38) Vuong is unstoppable. This latest work is already a TikTok sensation and massive bestseller. Here's the blurb: 'One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai's relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.'
The Spinoff
6 days ago
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Would you pay to secure a gig? Local theatre company sparks debate over casting fees
An Auckland community theatre company's request for cast members to pay a $150 fee to star in its production of The Phantom of The Opera has been labelled 'unethical'. A dream role, with a 'hefty' price tag attached: an Auckland theatre company's production of The Phantom of The Opera has copped flak from thespians for asking its cast to each pay a $150 fee, put towards production costs. In the eyes of one actor, it's like paying $150 for a 'job interview'. Ardent Performing Arts' upcoming Phantom production will be paid for out of the pockets of director Linda Marais and her husband who run the company, plus the fees fronted by its cast. A casting call published on April 10 for the production asked for potential stars to front '$150 upon audition' for an unpaid acting gig. The call was amended over the weekend to specify that the fees would be required only once actors were cast, after actress Gabrielle Salazar penned an open letter alleging it was 'unethical' to ask actors to pay, given for the most part they are paid no fee to perform in local theatre. Salazar told The Spinoff a pay-to-play model of business was basically non-existent in New Zealand's theatre community, and operating by that blueprint risked creating a barrier to participation, and commodifying a 'fun hobby'. Membership fees are common throughout many community theatre companies and offer perks such as free tickets, Salazar said, but they aren't a requirement to star in a show. 'Phantom of The Opera is going to be a huge show, but I reckon if you don't have the means to put it on, just don't,' Salazar said. She acknowledged the price that comes with producing a show – time, venue hire, costuming and more – but noted the actors were also offering their time and services for free. Local theatre productions are typically funded by ticket sales, though other funding options are available such as Auckland Council's regional arts and culture grants. In this instance, smaller companies such as Ardent would compete for funding with the likes of the Auckland Writers Festival, dance collectives and other various businesses in the arts. Fundraising events and sponsorships are other options, but can be less reliable. Salazar had contacted Ardent to share her disappointment about the fee, to which Marais replied that the casting fee 'included' the Ardent membership fee. After more concerns were shared, the Ardent representative clarified that the fee would only be required on casting. After publishing the open letter, Ardent edited the call to clarify that fees are 'due on casting', and published its statement to social media. The company sent The Spinoff the same statement when asked for comment. They were 'truly sorry for the confusion or distress caused' by the original wording and 'deeply appreciate those who took the time to reach out'. The statement, sent by Marais, explained that the company typically charged a $50 membership fee for cast, but as Phantom was a 'significantly more ambitious and resource-intensive production', the fee had been upped by $100 to meet costs. 'It would only apply to those offered and accepting a role in the production, and certainly not be collected on audition day,' she said. Marais said anyone who could not front the fee could 'speak with us confidentially'. Marais said Ardent was also 'actively pursuing other fundraising options to support this production'. 'We are listening, learning and always striving to do better,' the statement ended. Salazar's open letter drew support – as well as criticism – from a number of experienced actors and directors in Auckland's community theatre scene. One Auckland-based theatre director wrote in a Facebook group for local actors that he and his theatre partner 'lived off noodles' and made 'a lot of sacrifices' to be able to pay their way without the help of arts grants. 'I just downright wouldn't do a show we couldn't afford.' 'I'm not saying they are bad people,' they wrote, 'but perhaps a committee of advisers to help them on the right track is a good idea. Working within your means is important … The entire thing just screamed inexperienced at their end and that's OK.' Other actors who say they have worked with Ardent in the past confirmed they had paid a membership fee to star in the company's productions, but were happy with the free ticket perks which came with the fee, and support from the owners. 'They go above and beyond to be an inclusive family style theatre group that include [sic] everyone from kids on the spectrum to disabled people to more elderly individuals,' one commenter wrote.
Newsroom
27-05-2025
- Newsroom
For the love of Chidgey
There is something obviously and explicitly special going on with the reading public's adoration of Catherine Chidgey. It has been going on for some time now, first elevated when she wrote her first bestseller The Wish Child (2016), confirmed when she wrote Remote Sympathy (2020), blown up when she wrote The Axeman's Carnival (2022), and now coalesced into a kind of near-worship with her latest novel, The Book of Guilt – the biggest-selling book in New Zealand right now of any kind and by any author ie local or international, with a signing queue at the recent Auckland Writers Festival going out the door and into the rain. She inspires a feverish quality in readers, more so even than Eleanor Catton, not merely because the Booker winner lives remotely in Britain (Chidgey is a citizen of the republic of Waikato). Catton's work is neither as intimate or felt as Chidgey's fiction. The hype is real. The latest example was in the responses from readers in the latest ReadingRoom giveaway contest. A free book is offered each week. Some of them are very popular contests and some of them generate very entertaining replies to whatever question is posed. Nothing compares to the responses in the contest to win The Book of Guilt (as well as Delirious, by Damien Wilkins). Readers were asked to say something interesting about either author. One or two chose to make comments about Wilkins ('Damien once stayed in my house in Queenstown, but I was away on a film job up north. He might've put a book I didn't read signed and left in the bookshelf in the guest's bedroom'). Everyone else had something to say about Chidgey – and they were not always complimentary, not all of them from fans. There was a strange frisson going on within the 100 or so replies. A selection follows. Buddy Mikaere Last year I visited the States on a tour to retrace the American Civil War. Back here in Aotearoa I am involved in a project that will see the establishment of a NZ Wars Centre – Te Putake O Te Riri. As the NZ Wars of the 1860s were happening at the same time that the civil war was raging in America – I wanted to see how they had depicted that struggle at various battlefields and museums. At the departure airport, my partner Fi gave me a copy of The Axeman's Carnival to read on the plane. I loved it, finishing it at my Chicago hotel the day after I arrived. I flew to Washington and after a few days wandering about, went south to Fredericksburg in Virginia. On the outskirts of Fredericksburg I stayed with some Facebook friends who lived in the woodlands that surround the city. Over dinner that night – I think it was during a conversation about woodpeckers – I told the lady of the house about Tama the magpie, the central 'character' in Axeman and gave her the book to read. At breakfast the next morning, my red-eyed hostess told me she had stayed up all night reading the book which she couldn't put down. She said that despite the cultural differences she was completely captured by the power of the narrative and the fiery finale of the book in particular. I should explain that the couple made their living from their on-line consultancy and – just like Tama – they needed to have a 'presence' to attract and hold their prospective customers. The woodland setting of their house, the impatient subdued hammering of the woodpeckers in the trees – all combined to enliven the Chidgey narrative and bring it to a charged emotional level for my lovely hostess. As a result of that book I now have two great friends for life, and they look forward to visiting with me in the Coromandel. I might even introduce them to our local magpies. Madeleine Setchell I read recently in the Listener that Catherine and her husband had a long struggle with infertility. She may have spoken about this before, but it was not something I was aware of until recently. The article stated, 'For 13 years, she couldn't write. She and husband Alan Bekhuis, a mechanical engineer and daguerreotypist, wanted more than anything to have a child. Those 13 awful, long years were subsumed with IVF attempts and the debilitating side effects of the drugs used in the treatments. 'Alice was born in 2015. She was carried by a surrogate, who is now part of their family. The couple donated sperm to another woman desperate to have a child. That child is also now part of their family. She says, of Alice, 'She is the joy of my life'.' I thought she was so very brave to talk about this, despite infertility being very common there are still many reasons people don't speak about it publicly, or even to their families. I know Catherine's words will provide comfort to readers struggling with their own infertility challenges, and I hope, in some small way, they will know they are not alone. Full disclaimer, I am the Chairperson of Fertility NZ, a small but mighty charity that walks alongside all New Zealanders facing infertility. So perhaps I am on the lookout for these things. But it did really strike me a few weeks ago how great it was she included this in her interview. I too have a much wanted, and much loved daughter named Alice. Veronica Harrod I've had two personal interactions with well known authors. Keri Hulme of The Bone People who wrote a letter back to me in response to the letter I sent her, and Catherine Chidgey who I communicated with on one of the many digital platforms that have made letter writing a dying art in its own right. Perhaps that was why things went pear shaped. I'd finished her book The Axeman's Carnival which, like all her books I've read, I enjoyed immensely. But after I finished reading it I wondered why all the publicity I'd seen rarely mentioned the violence against the main female character Marnie. Instead it was all about the magpie as if the violence against Marnie was something unpleasant to be ignored. A common story in this country unfortunately. Then I told her about the magpies I had known. About one who a former neighbour of mine gave the name Mr Wu. It used to visit a few houses in the vicinity for a feed and to make a nuisance of itself. The first time Mr Wu visited me the magpie stalked in the open front door squawking for a feed. After that when Mr Wu visited he would stalk around the computer desk, where I was sitting, chewing on wires with his beak, peering at me from the top of the desktop computer or falling asleep in my arms when tired and needing a nap. He would make himself comfortable in my arms, his beak would curl into his chest, his eyes would close and he would be out for the count until it was time to get busy again. I also told her about a magpie I had rescued from the side of the road as I was driving home from work one evening. It was flopping around with its wings outstretched so I pulled over and discovered it had almost had both its feet severed. I don't know what had caused the injury all I knew was the magpie would be vulnerable and in pain from the injury. So I grabbed a jumper from the front seat of my car, threw it over the magpie and bundled it in the car before turning around and driving to a local vet. A vet on duty took the magpie into another room. After a while he came out and said there wasn't much that could be done. I said I didn't own the magpie. I had found it on the side of the road flapping its wings and clearly distressed. He said it was unusual for the magpie to let me pick it up and transport in a moving vehicle. I agreed the best course of action was to put the magpie to sleep. Unfortunately the author found my story distressing – which it is in one way – but in another way the magpie was fortunate I responded to its distress. I was surprised by her reaction because The Axeman's Carnival is a book based on violence and a strong vein of violence runs through her novels often. I even said with some incredulity, 'But your book is about violence.' Perhaps though it's one thing to describe violence in a book but quite another to be in the thick of violence. Helen Nugteren I am definitely not a follower of fashion and hullabaloo does my head in. Give me Owen Marshall any day. I smile in recognition of his superb craftsmanship. Once the shouting about Catherine Chidgey has died down, I might get around to borrowing the new one from the mobile library in Arthur's Pass. Jan Pryor I love both authors for different reasons. Damien scares the bejesus out of me with his gentle terrifying depiction of ageing; I adore the Chidge because she recognised my genius and awarded my short story 1st prize in a competition a few years ago. Susan Gresson I waited in line at the book launch for Pet because I wanted to tell Catherine that after reading Remote Sympathy several times and contemplating the different perspectives I couldn't decide where my sympathy lay. The book places the reader in a position not to judge but to feel what it was like to live in a period where moral issues were not only dangerous but ambivalent. She replied, 'I couldn't make up my mind either.' It is this quality of her work that I love. she doesn't prescribe, she allows the reader to embrace the character's perspective. In a time where there are so many extreme and definite opinions, it is so refreshing to be treated like a competent reader to come to your own conclusion & struggle with the banality of evil. Patricia Fenton Back in the last millennium we were living in a charming little German village in the State of Hessen. My husband reckoned we might as well have had a flashing Kiwi sign above our apartment. Being in Central Europe, family, friends and acquaintances found their way to us, and they were always welcome. One day our daughter, Virginia, phoned and asked if her friend Cath, and Cath's mother, Pat, could come and stay with us. Cath was on a Goethe scholarship and her mother was visiting from New Zealand. 'You won't regret it,' Virginia said. 'They're good company, and Cath is destined for great things. She's going to be famous.' Our daughter was right – on all counts. The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) is available in bookstores nationwide.
