Stay updated with breaking news from ஊன மேனியன் ஃபேபர். Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending March 12 Bestseller chart 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 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber & Faber, $37) New Ishiguro! New Ishiguro! It really should be shouted from the rooftops. (As should the fact that he’s appearing via livestream at the Auckland Writers Festival, in May.) The Nobel Prize and Man Booker winner’s eighth novel is narrated by Klara, an android or “Artificial Friend” bought as a companion for an ill young woman in a strange future version of America. Ishiguro delves back into themes he explored in Never Let Me Go – and yes, it stacks up, and yes, you should read it. ....
LUSTER by Raven Leilani (Picador £14.99, 240 pp) This debut was a big deal in America last year and hits the UK riding a tsunami of praise. Edie is 23, living in a mouse-ridden flat, floundering in her job in publishing and with a history of ill-judged sexual relationships, when she starts an online flirtation with Eric, an older, married, white man. Before long, Edie has moved in with Eric, his wife Rebecca and their adopted 12-year-old black daughter, Akila. Edie sleeps with Eric, has a strangely intimate friendship with Rebecca, strikes up a tentative relationship with Akila and decides she’s happy to take the cash that keeps appearing mysteriously in her room, despite the nature of the transaction being far from clear. ....
Books to look out for in 2021 Irish fiction New work that has been a long time coming generates a particular shiver of anticipation. Small Things Like These (Faber, October) will be Claire Keegan’s first new work since her novella Foster, still a bestseller 10 years on. Her publisher says: “An exquisite wintery parable, Claire Keegan’s long-awaited return tells the story of a simple act of courage and tenderness, in the face of conformity, fear and judgment.” Small Things Like These (Faber, October) will be Claire Keegan’s first new work since her novella Foster, still a bestseller 10 years on. Photograph: Alan Betson ....