03 Magazine: September 01, 2023

72 Magazine | Read
Book club
Great new reads to please even the pickiest of bookworms.
WINNING REVIEW
YOU'VE BEEN
READING
THE FRAUD
Zadie Smith | Penguin, $37
The Fraud is acclaimed novelist Zadie Smith’s (White Teeth) first
foray into historical fiction (based on wonderfully reimagined
real events), with a handful of compelling characters (such
as Mrs Eliza Touchet, a seemingly unassuming housekeeper
for renowned novelist William Harrison Ainsworth), and set
against the legal trial that divided Victorian England. Cleverly
written and beautifully researched, Smith’s tale travels from
Scotland to England to Jamaica.
THE DRESSMAKER & THE HIDDEN SOLDIER
Doug Gold | Allen & Unwin, $38
From well-known Wellington-based media figure Doug
Gold comes The Dressmaker & the Hidden Soldier. Based on
the extraordinary true story of New Zealand soldier Peter
Blunden, young Greek dressmaker Thalia Christidou and
resistance heroine Tasoula Paschilidou, it’s an epic love story
that unfolds in a country under Hitler’s oppressive regime.
BWANA, THERE’S A
BODY IN THE BATH!
Peter Whitehead & Tony Park
Ingwe Publishing, $45
A natural-born storyteller,
first-time author Peter’s
memoir tells of an amazing life,
from his birth in Shanghai, to
schooldays in England, being a
child migrant to Australia aged
13, WWII in the Australian
army, before being drawn
to the wide open spaces of
Africa – which provides plenty
of material for a memoir rich
in wonderful stories.
– Henrietta Purvis
THE SEVENTH SON
Sebastian Faulks | Penguin, $37
When young American academic Talissa Adam offers to carry
another woman’s child, she has no idea of the life-changing
consequences. Behind the doors of the Parn Institute, a
billionaire entrepreneur plans to stretch the boundaries of
ethics as never before. Through a series of IVF treatments,
which they hope to keep secret, they propose an experiment
that will upend the human race as we know it. A captivating
new novel from the worldwide bestseller.
THE MODERN
Anna Kate Blair | Simon & Schuster, $38
The debut novel from Melbourne-based Kiwi writer Anna Kate
Blair, The Modern tells the story of Australian Sophia, who has
moved to the Big Apple and appears to be living the dream – in
a great apartment, working at the iconic Museum of Modern
Art, and newly engaged to the perfect man. But things take
a different direction when she falls for someone unexpected.
A brilliantly wry and insightful first novel about art, sexuality,
commitment and whether being on the right path can lead to
the wrong place.