Recs if you like Banjara...

partly inspired by toni morrison’s concept of ‘rememory’, where the past haunts the present. these are stories where family ties, friendships, communities, trauma, or physical locations act as threads (or invisible string) to connect characters across distance or time and through generations.

Haere Mai, welcome! Here you will find a non-exhaustive list of modern literature that evokes the feeling of what it is like to live in Aotearoa New Zealand today.

All books here are written by New Zealanders and set in modern time New Zealand (or a fictionalised version of).

Very open to recommendations!

Whether it be the authors, the characters, the setting, or the country itself, these books are some of the essential reads of Aotearoa New Zealand. Fiction to nonfiction, prose to poetry, the stories of our people and our land are here. This list is ever-growing, and I will continue to add to it as I read more pukapuka from our shores.

I love a good historical fiction novel, and sometimes the ones based on a real event, person, or disaster really bring out those human emotions we deserve to simmer in for a bit. From heartache and heroism to life and loss, these novels take the reader on a journey and lead them through all sorts of emotions along the way. More novels will be added to this list as I read them, and I am always on the look out for more historical fiction recommendations.