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 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape, $26)

The slight, superb winner of the Booker Prize 2024. Here’s a snippet from this review in The Guardian: “Orbital is a hopeful book and it studies people who act on their hope. It’s an Anthropocene book resistant to doom. We might miss the restless anger that tossed about in The Shapeless Unease, and the acerbic, downright forms of expression it found for itself. But Orbital offers vehement appreciation of the world in a range of tones and situations.”

2 Human Acts by Han Kang (Granta, $28)

It is bolstering to see Kang’s work resurfacing in bestsellers since the genius Korean writer was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. Human Acts is an extraordinary, sobering and solidifying read that follows the impact of the Gwangju Uprising in 1980 to the present day.

3 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Portobello Books, $28)

The unsettling, searing, unforgettable novel from Kang about one woman’s response to trauma. One of the best novels of the century.

4 Zest: Climbing From Depression To Philosophy by Daniel Kalderimis (Bateman, $40)

“This is not a manual for how to ‘get well’,” says the blurb for this collection of personal essays. “It’s for the many people in careers like Daniel, the high-fliers and the driven who don’t stop to smell the flowers, then hit the wall and wonder how to get over that wall.”

Sounds like an ideal gift from a local writer for the high flier in your life.

5 Fire by John Boyne (Doubleday, $35)

The latest in Boyne’s elemental series has a steady 4.4 rating on Good Reads and is cementing his very productive and successful run of late. Here’s the blurb: “On the face of it, Freya lives a gilded existence, dancing solely to her own tune. She has all the trappings of wealth and privilege, a responsible job as a surgeon specialising in skin grafts, a beautiful flat in a sought-after development, and a flash car. But it wasn’t always like this. Hers is a life founded on darkness.

Did what happened to Freya as a child one fateful summer influence the adult she would become – or was she always destined to be that person? Was she born with cruelty in her heart or did something force it into being?

In Fire, John Boyne takes the reader on a chilling, uncomfortable but utterly compelling psychological journey to the epicentre of the human condition, asking the age-old question: nurture – or nature?”

6 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $37)

The breadth of opinion on Good Reads never fails to thrill. Rather enjoyed this three-star review from Baba Yaga Reads:

“Four hundred and forty-eight pages of men taking zero accountability for their actions and using women as their emotional crutches. So I guess you could say it’s realistic?”

7 Karla’s Choice: A John le Carré Novel by Nick Harkaway (Viking Penguin, $38)

John le Carré’s son continues George Smiley’s bestselling adventures.

8 Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd (Viking Press, $38)

Cold war espionage.

9 City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (Harvill Secker, $55) 

Once upon a time a new Murakami would have come out to as much fanfare as a new Rooney, or almost. But the noise around the release of City and its Uncertain Walls is more like a subtle hum. The question is, once you’ve read two or three Murakamis, have you read them all?

10 Becoming Tangata Tiriti: Working with Maori, Honouring the Treaty by Avril Bell (Auckland Uni Press, $30)

Given the historic outpouring of collective action witnessed in Wellington this week, Bell’s excellent book is a timely read for Tangata Tiriti across Aotearoa.

WELLINGTON

1 Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton (Fig Tree, $28)

Alderton did a sell-out event at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington this week which explains the Alderton ambush of the list (see items 2, 4 and also 8).

Everything I Know About Love is the 2018 memoir that launched a thousand Alderton fans.

2 Dear Dolly: On Love, Life & Friendship by Dolly Alderton (Penguin Books, $26)

This one is the 2022 collection of letters that Alderton received when she was an agony aunt (and her responses).

3 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape, $26)

4 Good Material by Dolly Alderton (Penguin Books, $26)

This one is the rom-com-heart-break novel.

5 Bound: A Memoir of Making & Remaking by Maddie Ballard (The Emma Press, $32)

Maddie Ballard is a brilliant Aotearoa writer and this essay collection is her first of what we are predicting will be many excellent books. Here’s the blurb: “Bound: A Memoir of Making and Remaking is a collection of essays about sewing and knowing who you are. Each chapter in this sewist’s diary charts the crafting of a different garment: from a lining embroidered with the names of her female ancestors to a dressing gown holding the body of a beloved friend, Maddie Ballard navigates love, personal connections, and self-care, drafting her own patterns for ways of living.”

Wrap one up and slip it under the tree for me, please.

6 Good Nature by Kathy Willis (Bloomsbury, $39)

With our hankering for summer intensifying nobody needs to be told that time spent in nature improves health, but this book tells you exactly why.

7 Make It Make Sense by Lucy Blakiston & Bel Hawkins (Moa Press, $37)

The Shit You Should Care About book.

8 Ghosts by Dolly Alderton (Penguin Books, $26)

And this one is the other rom-com-heart-break novel. Thank you and goodnight.

9 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $37)

10 Becoming Tangata Tiriti: Working with Maori, Honouring the Treaty by Avril Bell (Auckland Uni Press, $30)