Memoir Archives - Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books

Europe History Memoir Nonfiction

Lily, Oh Lily: Searching for a Nazi Ghost
by Jeffrey Paparoa Holman

'Genealogy is dangerous': a 'compulsive and moving hunt' for family secrets.

Rebecca HillOctober 25, 2024

Memoir Mermaids Nonfiction

The Mermaid Chronicles
by Megan Dunn

On mothers and daughters, and on not writing a book about mermaids.

Guy SomersetSeptember 20, 2024

Memoir Nonfiction

First Things: A Memoir
by Harry Ricketts

'Resilience and honesty lift from every page' of this coming-of-age memoir.

Stephanie JohnsonJune 7, 2024

Anthology Essays Memoir Nonfiction

Otherhood: Essays on being childless, childfree and child-adjacent
ed. Alie Benge, Lil O’Brien & Kathryn Van Beek

A 'kaleidoscopic' collection of essays and 'a testament to the various connections that shape our lives'.

Sara BucherJune 5, 2024

LGBTQIA+Māori Memoir Nonfiction Politics Society

Hine Toa: A story of bravery
by Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku

A compelling memoir: 'vital to write, vital to publish and vital to read.'

Paula MorrisMay 24, 2024

Art Illustrated Memoir Nonfiction

Dear Colin, Dear Ron: Selected Letters of Colin McCahon and Ron O’Reilly
by Peter Simpson

The 'illuminating' record of a long friendship and forty years at the heart of New Zealand visual art.

Leonard BellApril 29, 2024

Essays History Memoir Nonfiction Society

The Unsettled: Small Stories of Colonisation
by Richard Shaw

A 'courageous book' on Pākehā ‘journeying back into the map of memory'.

Paul DiamondApril 5, 2024

Memoir Nonfiction

Do You Still Have Time for Chaos?
by Lynn Davidson

A 'discursive exploration of belonging and not belonging, of the pull of home and the play of history'.

Sally BlundellFebruary 21, 2024

Art Essays Illustrated Literature Memoir Music Nonfiction Pasifika Photography Society

Pacific Arts Aotearoa
ed. Lana Lopesi

A journey through dozens of art forms and artists who 'powerfully assert Pacific identities on their own terms'.

Andrea LowDecember 22, 2023

LGBTQIA+Memoir Nonfiction Theatre

Robert Lord Diaries
ed. Chris Brickell, Vanessa Manhire and Nonnita Rees

The diaries of a groundbreaking queer new playwright with ‘an abiding ambivalence about being a New Zealander’.

Nathan JoeOctober 25, 2023

Memoir