Cute titles. How do I feel about cute titles? I feel that the authors have to work a couple of degrees harder to justify them. New Zealand-born, Britain-based Connell works very hard indeed in her second romp - and with reasonable success.

Barbara Ewing is a UK-based Kiwi actress and writer whose most recent novel is The Circus of Ghosts.

Who are we really? What's beyond the façade the rest of the world gets to see? How can we communicate without a voice?

Louisa Young's enthralling novel begins in the gorgeous, leafy light of upper-class Edwardian England where wealthy, bohemian-ish families plan lives filled with art and beauty, and ends in a darkened world transformed by the violence and pain of World Wa

John Boyne, author of The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, has published a new novel with links to World War I. The Absolutist traces the experiences of a young serviceman through a deft weave of past and present.

Doctor-turned-suspense novelist Tess Gerritsen talks to Craig Sisterson about embracing her heritage and seeing her heroines come alive onscreen.

Travelling with the original Lonely Planet as a guide, writer Brian Thacker finds what's changed in 35 years.

Books editor Linda Herrick talks to historian Anne Sebba about her new biography of the woman the royal family — and Britain — loved to hate.

This thoughtful little tome of short stories is perceptive and entertaining.

Can we relearn a sense? A chef apparently did, finds Nicky Pellegrino.

Mike Ashma is the director of the NBR New Zealand Opera's production of the double-bill Cav & Pag opening in Auckland on September 15.

I was in two minds when it came to choosing The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon for my September feature read.

A terrible thing happened, that day, up at Blackwoods' place, in The Secret River, the first of Grenville's historical novels set in the penal colony of New South Wales.

Stephen Jewell talks to New Zealand actress-turned-writer Barbara Ewing about why she’s mesmerised by researching times gone by.

His books sell abroad, but not here. Paul Cleave tells Nicky Pellegrino why.

This book might more accurately have been titled In Love With Dante. It is a wholehearted piece of advocacy for the 14th century writer, of whom Wilson says it "could be argued that he was the greatest of all European poets, of any time or place".

Why are we so enthralled by the pronouncements of the latter-day gurus of self-help, asks Alex Clark.

Through coincidence rather than design, there's a strong American influence in this month's Fiction Fix hotlist of new novels.

Only in Ireland could a half-forgotten route be named the Way of St Declan or the way of St Patrick's Cow.

Australian writer Arnold Zable talls Graham Reid about giving voice to people in his work and his good fortune in post-revolution China.