Auckland Council Libraries: Modern classics by Auckland authors

Modern classics by Auckland authors

Legendary titles by a selection of Auckland's most acclaimed authors, both past and present.

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Alex

Tessa Duder

Book

The multi-award winning series that follows the life of Alex, a vivid, engaging, complex, rebellious young woman, struggling with love, loss and school, while training to become an Olympic champion.

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All visitors ashore

C. K. (Christian Karlson) Stead

Book

The narrator of this novel once watched the white ships sail past Rangitoto Island and dreamed of a future beyond New Zealand. Now he wants only to recapture the past.

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The bad seed

Charlotte Grimshaw

Book

Now a major TV drama, these two connected novels by award-winning writer Charlotte Grimshaw take an unflinching look at politics and power, contemporary New Zealand society and the arid morality of the privileged.

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Bulibasha

Witi Ihimaera

Book

Caught in the middle of the struggle between two great Māori clans, Simeon, grandson of Bulibasha and Ramona, struggles with his own feelings and loyalties as the battles rage.

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Dove on the waters

Maurice Shadbolt

Book

The intriguing story of three very different people who are destined to meet: a globetrotting lawyer/sailor; a painter by the canals of Venice; a Boer War veteran ranging the New Zealand bush.

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Frank Sargeson's stories

Frank Sargeson

Book

A new edition of the short stories from the father of modern New Zealand writing and the man who introduced the speech of ordinary New Zealanders to our literature and took it to the international stage.

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From Mānoa to a Ponsonby garden

Albert Wendt

Book

From the valleys of Hawaii to the seasons of a garden in Auckland, this extraordinary offering of poems explores a variety of themes. This is an extraordinary, alert and confident book by one of our most celebrated writers.

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Landscape with solitary figure

Shonagh Koea

Book

Ellis sits in her house looking out the window. She tells us about the man who invited her to his dinner parties and took particular interest in knowing her biggest fear. Gradually she reveals what he did to her and how she survived.

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The Plumb trilogy

Maurice Gee

Book

Maurice Gee explores our history, politics and religion through three generations of a kiwi family.

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Rangatira

Paula Morris

Book

As Ngāti Wai chief Paratene Te Manu sits to have his portrait painted by Gottfried Lindauer, he reflects on past triumphs in London and their meetings with royalty to the disintegration of the visit into poverty, mistrust, and humiliation.

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The adventures of Vela

Albert Wendt

Book

Discover the many adventures of Vela, a 300-year-old Samoan song maker, poet and chronicler. We follow Vela as he meets many different peoples and societies and encounters the warrior queen Lady Nafanua.

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Rich man road

Ann Glamuzina

Book

Olga, a Dalmatian refugee, and Pualele, a Pacific Islander who is illegally adopted, come from different worlds. However, when their lives intersect, they discover more about themselves than either could ever have imagined.

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Nights with Grace

Rosie Scott

Book

In the summer that she turns 17, Grace enters a world full of richness and danger, love and loss, innocence and exploitation. Set on a beautiful yet troubled island in the Pacific, Nights with Grace is about first love.

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Studmuffin

Marilyn Duckworth

Book

32-year-old teacher Alice slips through the looking glass with an albino accountant. Together, they must battle the sinister Powell, who is a cross between a 90s Mad Hatter and a malignant Wizard of Oz.

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The Shag incident

Stephanie Johnson

Book

The people who committed the act of revenge in 1985 thought it was perfectly executed. Twenty years on the truth is revealed, the truth about the deception that started it all and the seemingly disparate characters involved.

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Auckland Council Libraries:Book list Recommended reading lists about different topics and genres to help you find new books to read.