Back in the familiar rural midwest of her previous novels, Moo, Horse Heaven and A Thousand Acres, Pulitzer prize-winner Jane Smiley presents us with the first volume of a projected trilogy.

To modern eyes, the little wagon in a Berlin museum looks like a model of an old horse-drawn cart. Solidly made, about as big as a baby's cot, it is in fact a handcart, to be pulled by people, not animals.

A novel is a place where past and present versions of one person can co-exist, and in his fifth novel Andrew O'Hagan movingly explores the way the "flotsam" of a life can rise to the surface as old age and memory go about their strange and poignant work.

Plaudits to the publisher for their tactile, trim presentation of this small-is-beautiful novella. And to the Australian author herself for a rewarding — and riddling — little read.

The announcement that Harper Lee is to revisit the characters of To Kill a Mockingbird has been greeted with delight and suspicion.

Many writers resist national labels. Like Salman Rushdie, we'd rather belong to "the boundless kingdom of the imagination ... the unfettered republic of the tongue".

As we head into the Waitangi Day circus, Titewhai and her whanau have been gazumped by literary prima donna Eleanor Catton, writes Brian Rudman.

Je suis hua, writes Deborah Hill Cone, as she asks: "weren't we all just gargling on about free speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre?"

What is normal? And what if you don't fit in with society's idea of it? Those are the issues raised by US author Amy Hatvany's thoughtful and compelling new novel

Lucy Wood’s first novel is a magic realist ghost story set in Devon. Lucy Popescu went there to meet her.

The Taxpayers’ Union says Kiwis have done more than enough to support under-fire author Eleanor Catton, who received upward of $50k in funding over the last few years.

Colleen McCullough, the internationally acclaimed Australian author, has died, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Eleanor Catton's Man Booker Prize-winning novel The Luminaries shows she knows a thing or two about astrology, but I doubt she foresaw the stoush triggered by her remarks.

A popular book store remains closed after it was flooded today and hundreds of books were damaged.

New Zealand's original Booker Prize winner has defended her successor after Eleanor Catton was criticised for speaking out against the Government and some Kiwi attitudes.

A man twice acquitted for the sexual violation and murder of his adopted niece says a new book tells the truth about how she died.

"Tell you what", write the editors of this excellent collection, is a phrase that promises "a revelation, a shift, a new truth".

I can see it plainly now. Stephen King has been playing me. The old Stephen King, the real one. I'd forgotten about him. That was his plan all along.

Porochista Khakpour's new novel is a magical realist take on 9/11.

From Dolly Parton's smelly cabbage soup to Liz Taylor's stinky dip, behind most stars is a mad, fad diet. Writer Rebecca Harrington tried them all.

Jodi Picoult has written 23 novels, eight of them No 1 bestsellers. Just don’t call her work ‘women’s fiction’, says Bryony Gordon.

When a computer virus hacks into the Australian prison system in 2010, it also infects the American corporations that licensed the software.

The quintessential guide book for the scene of New Zealand's most significant war effort covers everything you need to know about the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Word-lovers are being encouraged to ditch new coinages for long-lost words that may have fallen out of favour.

New images of Hagrid, Hermione, Ron and Draco Malfoy have been released ahead of October's release of the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone illustrated edition.

Down a driveway in a modest house in Hamilton's university suburb is where the magic happens.

Absorbing stories are an ideal way to unwind over summer.