![]() Pomare, and you Ben Sanders and Catherine Robertson and Nicky Pellegrino and Eileen Merriman. There’s just as much craft in those books, just as much texture. So I want to stop for a sec and recognise the thrillers (not just the literary thrillers), the “commercial fiction”, the stuff that’s easy and fun to read – the stuff that’s not on this list. This hasn’t happened for a couple of years maybe it’s just where my head’s at, but I looked at this list and was overwhelmed with exhaustion. This longlist also features a couple of books I couldn’t finish or wished I hadn’t. Sue Orr and Rebecca K Reilly: the 2022 fiction winners? (Photos: Ebony Lamb) That said, I suspect the Acorn and the sweet sweet $60k will go to Sue Orr for her novel about abortion / adoption / autism Loop Tracks, with Rebecca K Reilly handed the consolation prize of best first book for the knowing, lol-filled Greta and Valdin, about siblings muddling through in Auckland. “There’s really nothing in the book that isn’t happening now,” she wrote. Elizabeth Knox reviewed Unsheltered for us – “in awe at what Clare has achieved”, she wrote – and we published an essay by Moleta. There’s so much thirst and heat and dust and walking, walking, walking – but then there are scenes that sing with life, scream with it, like those David Attenborough documentaries where you watch green rip through the desert. (Maybe so that she doesn’t do herself out of New Zealand’s biggest fiction prize, which seems to prefer fiction set close to home?) Clare Moleta (Photo: Stan Alley) The country feels like Australia, although Clare Moleta’s been coy on that. ![]() The climate’s going exponentially to hell and so is society. A mother is desperately searching for her eight-year-old daughter across a desiccated, disintegrating country. It has a compulsive plot, a racing heart it’s one of those novels you carry with you. (See: The Absolute Book, which dipped out on a shortlist spot in 2020 Sorrow and Bliss, which did likewise last year.)īut let’s linger on Unsheltered for a moment. Of course, awesomeness is no guarantee of a win. My top four, in ascending order of awesomeness: Aljce in Therapy Land, She’s A Killer, Greta and Valdin, Unsheltered. There are some great books on this list, flashes of brilliance that lit up a shit year. Unsheltered by Clare Moleta (Scribner Australia, Simon & Schuster)* Your 2022 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction shortlist, maybe? (Images: Supplied) The Pink Jumpsuit: Short fictions, tall truths by Emma Neale (Quentin Wilson Publishing) She’s a Killer by Kirsten McDougall (Te Herenga Waka University Press) Loop Tracks by Sue Orr (Te Herenga Waka University Press) Kurangaituku by Whiti Hereaka (Huia Publishers) ![]() Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Te Herenga Waka University Press)* The Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction ($60,000 prize)Ī Good Winter by Gigi Fenster (Text Publishing)Īljce in Therapy Land by Alice Tawhai (Lawrence & Gibson)Įntanglement by Bryan Walpert (Mākaro Press)Įverything Changes by Stephanie Johnson (Vintage, Penguin Random House) Shortlists will be announced on 2 March, with winners revealed at a ceremony in May. ![]() We’ve popped an asterisk beside the books that are debuts, and therefore up for a best first book prize. The embargo’s toast so here, finally, are the finalists of the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.īelow we’ve listed the 10 books contending each of the four major categories, followed by analysis from books editor Catherine Woulfe and poetry editor Chris Tse. ![]()
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