Read Around Oceania Challenge

Read at least one book by an author from each country in Oceania.

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Recommended Challenge Books (105)
71.

Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera EN

Rating: 4     28 Votes
Description:
As her beloved grandfather, chief of the Maori tribe of Whangara, New Zealand, struggles to lead in difficult times and to find a male successor, young Kahu is developing a mysterious relationship with whales, particularly the ancient bull whale whose legendary rider was their ancestor.
Recommended: 06 Mar 2022

72.

Faces In The Water by Janet Frame EN

Rating: 3.5     8 Votes
Description:
'Janet Frame's luminous words are the more precious because they were snatched from the jaws of the disaster of her early life . . . and yet to read her is no more difficult than breathing' Hilary Mantel When Janet Frame's doctor suggested that she write about her traumatic experiences in mental institutions in order to free herself from them, the result was Faces in the Water, a powerful and poignant novel. Istina Mavet descends through increasingly desolate wards, with the threat of leucotomy ever present. As she observes her fellow patients, long dismissed by hospital staff, with humour and... continue
Recommended: 07 Mar 2022

73.

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier EN

Rating: 4.5     105 Votes
Description:
Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum, faces the difficult task of having to save her family from its enemies, who have bewitched her father and six older brothers while forcing her to choose between the life she has always known and a special love. Reprint.
Genre
Recommended: 09 Apr 2022

74.

Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier EN

Rating: 4     31 Votes
Description:
Beautiful Sorcha is the courageous young woman who risked all to save her family from a wicked curse and whose love shattered generations of hate and bridged two cultures. It is from her sacrifice that Sorcha's brothers were brought home to their ancestral fortress Sevenwaters, and her life has known much joy. But not all the brothers were able to fully escape the spell that transformed them into swans, and it is left to Sorcha's daughter Liadan to help fulfill the destiny of the Sevenwaters clan. Beloved child and dutiful daughter, Liadan embarks on a journey that shows her just how hard-won ... continue
Recommended: 09 Apr 2022

75.

The Bone People by Keri Hulme EN

Rating: 4     60 Votes
Description:
Integrating both Maori myth and New Zealand reality, The Bone People became the most successful novel in New Zealand publishing history when it appeared in 1984. Set on the South Island beaches of New Zealand, a harsh environment, the novel chronicles the complicated relationships between three emotional outcasts of mixed European and Maori heritage. Kerewin Holmes is a painter and a loner, convinced that "to care for anything is to invite disaster." Her isolation is disrupted one day when a six-year-old mute boy, Simon, breaks into her house. The sole survivor of a mysterious shipwreck, Simon... continue
Recommended: 20 Apr 2022

76.

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason EN

Rating: 4     1 Vote
Description:
"This novel is about a woman called Martha. She knows there is something wrong with her but she doesn't know what it is. Her husband Patrick thinks she is fine. He says everyone has something, the thing is just to keep going. By the time Martha finds out what is wrong, it doesn't really matter anymore. It is too late to get the only thing she has ever wanted. Or maybe it will turn out that you can stop loving someone and start again from nothing - if you can find something else to want."--Provided by publisher.
Genre
Recommended: 10 Jun 2022

77.

Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff EN

Rating: 4     7 Votes
Description:
Life as a Maori in present day New Zealand, chronicling their poverty, their alcoholism and their despair. The narrator is a Maori woman who has nothing but contempt for Maori men--warriors who degenerated into lazy bums.
Genre
Recommended: 04 Sep 2022

78.

The Quiet People by Paul Cleave EN

Rating: 3.7     6 Votes
Description:
Suspicion is cast on two successful crime writers, when their seven-year-old son goes missing. Are they trying to show that they can commit the perfect crime? A mesmerisingly twisty, dark thriller from number-one bestselling author Paul Cleave... 'A cinematic, raging, rollercoaster of a plot with a wry humour ... The Quiet People is wildly entertaining and will keep you guessing right to the end' New Zealand Herald 'A superb novel from a champion storyteller' Crime Watch 'Cleave writes the kind of dark, intense thrillers that I never want to end. Do yourself a favour and check him out' Simon K... continue
Genre
Recommended: 03 Oct 2022

79.

Potiki by Patricia Grace EN

Rating: 3.6     5 Votes
Description:
'Provocative, compassionate and beautiful' - Joy Harjo, US Poet Laureate A moving story of a Maori community's fight for survival, from one of New Zealand's most prominent and celebrated authors On the remote coast of New Zealand, at the curve that binds the land and the sea, a small Maori community live, work, fish, play and tell stories of their ancestors. But something is changing. The prophet child toko can sense it. Men are coming, with dollars and big plans to develop the area for tourism. As their ancestral land becomes threatened, the people must unite in a battle for survival. Weaving... continue
Recommended: 08 Oct 2022

80.

Island of the Lost : An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett EN

0 Ratings
Description:
“Riveting.” —The New York Times Book Review Hundreds of miles from civilization, two ships wreck on opposite ends of the same deserted island in this true story of human nature at its best—and at its worst. It is 1864, and Captain Thomas Musgrave’s schooner, the Grafton, has just wrecked on Auckland Island, a forbidding piece of land 285 miles south of New Zealand. Battered by year-round freezing rain and constant winds, it is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death. Incredibly, at the same time on the opposite end of the island, another... continue
Recommended: 22 Oct 2022


BEST BOOKS FROM OCEANIA BY COUNTRY

Australia · Fiji · Kiribati · Marshall Islands · Micronesia · Nauru · New Zealand · Palau · Papua New Guinea · Samoa · Solomon Islands · Tonga · Tuvalu · Vanuatu

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