The top 10 sales lists recorded every week at Unity Books\u2019 stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.<\/p>\n
1 London Falling\u00a0<\/a>by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador, $40)<\/p>\n \u201cEarly one winter morning in November 2019, a surveillance camera at MI6\u2019s headquarters on the Thames registered the silhouette of a young man on the balcony of an apartment complex on the opposite side of the river,\u201d writes Ian Thomson in The Guardian<\/a>. \u201cIt was dark but the fifth-floor balcony was brightly lit. The man seemed to hesitate a moment before he jumped. On the way down his hip struck the embankment wall and, possibly unconscious as he hit the water, he drowned. His body was found five hours later face down in riverbank mud, shirtless and in tracksuit bottoms. The autopsy revealed multiple injuries (including a broken jaw) that were caused either by the fall or by a prior assault; the pathologist was unable to determine which.\u201d Radden Keefe\u2019s book unravels the truth of that night and is as gripping and as robust as we\u2019ve come to expect from one of the greatest investigative journalists of our time.<\/p>\n 2 The Black Monk<\/a> by Charlotte Grimshaw (Penguin, $38)<\/p>\n \u201cA woman haunted by family denial, secrets and a shadowy figure . . .<\/p>\n While her brother Cedric spirals into addiction, Alice Lidell finds herself confronted not only by his decline, but by memories of the past. From their chaotic Auckland childhood to her present day life, Alice is haunted by a mysterious figure she calls the Black Monk.<\/p>\n As Alice tries to hold her family together, the Black Monk appears in various guises: a stranger met in a cemetery, a face on television, a character surfacing in her own writing.<\/p>\n Part psychological thriller, part family saga, this is a daring novel that examines the themes of the moment: shame, addiction, truth and the stories we tell to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n 3 The<\/a> Correspondent<\/a> by Virginia Evans (Michael Joseph, $38)<\/p>\n Shortlisted for this year\u2019s Women\u2019s Prize for Fiction.<\/a><\/p>\n 4 Banjara<\/a> by Shana Chandra (Moa Press, $38)<\/p>\n A new debut from local publisher, Moa Press. Here\u2019s their blurb: \u201cRajasthan 1888: Avani Rathod, a nomad of the Banjara community, is summoned to teach a blue-eyed colonial officer the trees of her region, but instead is misled into indenture to the sugarcane plantations of Fiji. While on the voyage that leads her away from her ancestral land, Avani\u2019s baby forms in her belly and she forges close friendships with the other women bound for the Pacific \u2013 bonds that will be tested once they reach the islands, under the suffocating colonial powers.<\/p>\n Aotearoa 2016: Avani\u2019s great-granddaughter, Meera Chand, seeks the true history of her ancestors \u2013 the forgotten and displaced Girmitiya. Meera\u2019s search for her great-grandmother\u2019s origins leads her to a region of India, where she learns the rhythms of Odissi dance and where she meets up with her former lover \u2013 the man she can never have, but whom she can\u2019t forget.<\/p>\n Set in Aotearoa, Australia, India and Fiji, Banjara is an essential reimagining of Indo-Fijian Girmitiya history, and a love letter to our ancestors whose stories live on in our genes.\u201d<\/p>\n 5 Enough Said<\/a>\u00a0by Alan Bennett (Profile Books, $65)<\/p>\n Bennett\u2019s diaries covering the years 2016-2024.<\/p>\n 6 Buffalo Hunter<\/a>\u00a0by Stephen Jones (Titan Books, $29)<\/p>\n I\u2019ve heard so many raves about this horror. Here\u2019s the blurb: \u201cEtsy Beaucarne is an academic who needs to get published. So when a journal written in 1912 by Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor and her grandfather, is discovered within a wall during renovations, she sees her chance. She can uncover the lost secrets of her family, and get tenure. As she researches, she comes to learn of her grandfather, and a Blackfeet called Good Stab, who came to Arthur to share the story of his extraordinary life. The journals detail a slow massacre, a chain of events charting the history of Montana state as it formed. A cycle of violence that leads all the way back to 217 Blackfeet murdered in the snow. A blood-soaked and unflinching saga of the violence of colonial America, a revenge story like no other, and the chilling reinvention of vampire lore from the master of horror.\u201d<\/p>\n 7 Strange Houses\u00a0<\/a>by Uketsu (Pushkin Press, $37)<\/p>\n Haunted houses.<\/p>\n 8 The Mirror Book<\/a>\u00a0by Charlotte Grimshaw (Vintage, $40)\u00a0<\/p>\n Reviewed superbly back in 2021 by Emma Wehipeihana on The Spinoff, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 9 Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder & Memory in Northern Ireland<\/a>\u00a0by Patrick Radden Keefe (Haper Collins, $30)\u00a0<\/p>\n Now also a gripping TV series.<\/p>\n 10 Sisters in Yellow<\/a> by Mieko Kawakami (Picador, $38)<\/p>\n From the genius behind Breasts and Eggs comes the \u201cstory of deep friendship and deep betrayal\u201d.<\/p>\n WELLINGTON<\/p>\n 1 One Last Question, Prime Minister<\/a> by Barry Soper (Harper Collins, $40)<\/p>\n \u201cFor the political tragics,\u201d writes Lyric Waiwiri-Smith in her brilliant review<\/a> of Soper\u2019s book, \u201cthere\u2019s plenty of insider tea between the pages. Like the time Soper\u2019s car almost collided with Muldoon\u2019s on the parliament forecourt because the former prime minister was slumped drunk against the wheel. Or the time Soper talked Mike Moore\u2019s wife out of ditching her husband on a trip to London following a marital spat. Or the moment Jim Bolger told him, \u2018fuck you\u2019, and Soper replied, \u2018no, fuck you\u2019. Or when Chris Hipkins asked Soper what it\u2019s like to try cocaine.\u201d<\/p>\n 2 Project Hail Mary<\/a> by Andy Weir (Penguin, $28)<\/p>\n In a scary world this story is unashamedly loving and hopeful.<\/p>\n 3 Night, Ma<\/a> by Elizabeth Knox (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $40)<\/p>\n \u201cOver a period of three-and-a-half years between 2008 and 2012, Knox\u2019s sister was hospitalised with a psychotic break, her brother-in-law was murdered in Rarotonga and her mother was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Night, Ma is a shifting chronicle of these \u201ccalamities\u201d, these night-mares (the title reads differently after a while), that force the narrator \u2013 a time-travelling Knox \u2013 to \u201ctunnel back\u201d through her childhood, taking herself apart, to contextualise and humanise one of the most gruelling periods of her, and her family\u2019s, lives.\u201d Read the rest of Claire Mabey\u2019s review of this remarkable memoir, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 4 New Days for Old<\/a> by James Brown (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $30)<\/p>\n A brilliantly unique, at times strange collection of short scenes from the stuff of life. Check out a close reading of one of the poems, right here on The Spinoff.<\/a><\/p>\n 5 Peace & Quiet<\/a> by Dinah Hawken (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $25)<\/p>\n Cool in a cover of blue, this new collection is gentle, mesmerising and steadfast even as they take on a theme of ecological disaster.<\/p>\n 6 The Lost Climber\u2019s Legacy<\/a> by Julia Millen (Wrights Hill Press, $35)<\/p>\n A new local novel that blends wearable art with mountaineering and mystery.<\/p>\n 7 London Falling\u00a0<\/a>by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador, $40)<\/p>\n 8 The Clean: In the Dream Life You Need a Rubber Soul<\/a> by Richard Langston (Auckland University Press, $50)<\/p>\n Perfectly timed for New Zealand Music Month, which has somehow arrived already.<\/p>\n 9 Len Cook: South Dunedin to Whitehall<\/a> by Len Cook (Mary Egan, $35)<\/p>\n \u201cPart memoir, part oral history, South Dunedin to Whitehall follows Len Cook from a witty South Dunedin schoolboy to head of the UK\u2019s Office for National Statistics. With humour and insight, he reflects on family, politics and public service in a life that spans New Zealand and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n 10 The<\/a> Correspondent<\/a> by Virginia Evans (Michael Joseph, $38)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The top 10 sales lists recorded every week at Unity Books\u2019 stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69,21474],"class_list":["post-406852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-unity-best-sellers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}