Books

It's been a closely guarded secret, but the anonymous donor behind the country's richest literary prize is anonymous no longer. Audio

Tilly Lloyd from Unity Books reviews Chernobyl and Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front: An Untold Story of WWII by Serhii Plokhy, both published by Penguin. Ukrainian author Serhii Plokhy will… Audio

Kiran Dass of Time Out Bookstore reviews Actress by Anne Enright, which is published by Jonathan Cape. Audio

Leilani Tamu reviews The Adventures of Tupaia by Courtney Sina Meredith and Mat Tait, published by Allen & Unwin. Audio

It's time for our Tuesday book slot and this week Robert Kelly is having another go at inventing a new genre - Vampire fiction! Audio

Harry Broad reviews The General and the Nightingale: Dan Davin's War Stories by Dan Davin, edited by Janet Wilson. Published by Otago University Press. Audio

Jonathan West reviews The Dark Island: Leprosy in New Zealand and the Quail Island Colony by Benjamin Kingsbury. This book is published by Bridget Williams Books. Audio

When New Zealand Review of Books Pukapuka Aotearoa lost its funding, publisher Peppercorn Press started looking at its options. Audio

Holly Walker reviews The Janes: An Alice Vega Novel by Louisa Luna, published by Text. Audio

Nigeria's Chigozie Obioma is the first author in Booker Prize history to be nominated for their first and second book. The second, 'An Orchestra of Minorities' demonstrates an act of masterful… Audio

Beloved Unity Books in Auckland's High Street has made it to the shortlist of three to be in the running for International Bookstore of the Year 2020.  Owner operator, Jo McColl talks to Jesse about… Audio

When writer Long Litt Woon's husband, Eiolf died unexpectedly at the age of 54, she was adrift with grief. And so, she signed up for a course on mushrooming, something she and Eiolf had planned to do… Audio

Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science - which calls on everyone to "smash stereotypes, defy gender biases and defeat discrimination that hold women and girls back from… Audio

Phil Vine reviews Family Instructions Upon Release by Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod, published by The Cuba Press. Audio

Cindy Kiro reviews American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, published by Hachette NZ. Audio

Fantasy writer H.G (Hannah) Parry's novel The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep imagines what might happen if well-known literary characters broke free from the books they inhabit and invaded everyday… Audio

Melanie O'Loughlin of Unity Books reviews her favourite reads of last year: Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth (Bloomsbury, $23), No Friend But the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani (Pan Macmillan, $25)… Audio