Notes from a Bookocalypse

The Papercuts gals are back to help you navigate the huge flood of incredible books that were delayed by Covid-19 and are now finally available for your reading pleasure. We also bring you our usual winning formula: a hot scoop of book industry news, our insightful book reviews and discussions, our not-book reviews and our dangerously teetering TBR piles. Come up the Papercuts lab and see what’s on the slab!

Books reviewed this episode:

KD: The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, Summerwater by Sarah Moss and Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan

LK: Sisters by Daisy Johnson (Jonathan Cape) & Nothing to See by Pip Adam (VUP)

JT: Deep Work by Cal Newport (Little & Brown)

Not books:

KD: Gloss on YouTube

LK: The Great on Neon

JT: Origins on TVNZ

The TBR Pile:

KD: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (Picador) and Real Life by Brandon Taylor (Daunt) and 2020 NZ fiction for judging the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction for the Ockhams!

LK: The Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemison (Orbit), The Swimmers by Chloe Lane (VUP), Sprigs by Brannavan Gnanalingam (Lawrence and Gibson)

JT: Tree of Strangers by Barbara Sumner (MUP), Death in her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh (Jonathan Cape), Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (Bloomsbury)

Book news:

• The NZ Children’s and Young Adults Book Awards were held on 12th August. Congratulations to all the winners, especially Selina Tusitala Marsh, whose first children’s book Mophead (AUP) won Margaret Mahy Book of the Year.
• Maggie O’Farrell has won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel Hamnet (Tinder Press).
• Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has won the International Booker Prize for their debut novel The Discomfort of Evening (trans by Michele Hutchinson, Faber).
• The Booker Prize 2020 shortlist has been announced! There’s no Hilary Mantel, and it’s the most diverse shortlist ever!
• Lineups for WORD (28 October–1 November), VERB (6–8 November 2020) and YARNS IN BARNS ( 8–18th October) have been announced – get amongst! 

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