You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flames.

After the trouble starts and the soldiers arrive on Matilda's island, there comes a time when all the white people have left. Only Mr Watts remains, and he wears a red nose and pulls his wife around on a trolley; the kids call him Popeye behind his back. But there is no one else to teach them their lessons, and no books left to learn from—except for Mr Watts's battered copy of Great Expectations, 'by my friend Mr Dickens'.

As Mr Watts stands before the class and reads, Dickens's hero, Pip, starts to come alive in Matilda's imagination. Soon he has become as real to her as her own family, and the greatest friendship of her life has begun.

But Matilda is not the only one who believes in Pip. And on an island at war, the power of the imagination can be a dangerously provocative thing.

A dazzling achievement, Mister Pip is a love song to the power of storytelling. It is about belonging and losing one's way, about love, grief and memory, and it shows how books can change our lives forever.

Then she lifts the Fish up from the bassinet and holds him out to me.

            ‘Go on, take him.’ And to the Fish she says, ‘This is

            your uncle.’

            I manage to clap my hands either side of the fish bundle. But I feel like I am holding an expensive glass. Once you’re told not to drop it, all you can think of is the glass shattering across the floor.

When the baby is born—in a shabby caravan at a beach campground—it’s clear he is not like other babies. But the family will try hard to protect and love and accept him. Perhaps all the more to make up for letting his troubled mother down.

The young uncle grapples with his connection to the Fish. And as he tries to understand his family and its confusing secrets and shame, his sense of his own place in the world begins to crumble.

Lloyd Jones’s unique lyrical style is mesmerising in this tender story of family bonds, both strained and strengthened by tragedy, and the redemptive power of writing.

Lloyd Jones was born in New Zealand. His best-known works include Mister Pip, winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, The Book of Fame, winner of numerous literary awards, Hand Me Down World, A History of Silence and The Cage.

‘New Zealand writer Lloyd Jones is a master storyteller …’ Weekend Australian

Long ago, when the men were away at the war, Alma began painting the women of the town. They sat for him in lieu of payment for his work catching rats. Alice, his favourite, returned his attentions, and when her husband, George, came home from the war, he set out to prove his love and reclaim his wife by moving a hill—wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow—for her.

Now, decades later, Alma's 'in lieu of' payment is revived, and the townspeople, looking to escape various corners of despair, turn to drawing classes. For when you draw, the only thing that matters is what lies before you.

Paint Your Wife is a colourful, sensual novel, brimming with rich stories and even richer characters.

Lloyd Jones's best-known novel is Mister Pip, which won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the 2008 Kiriyama Prize Fiction Category and the 2008 Montana Fiction Award. It was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and has been made into a major feature film, directed by Andrew Adamson (Shrek and Narnia). His other books include Hand Me Down World, The Book of Fame - which won the Deutz Medal for Fiction at the 2001 Montana New Zealand Book Awards and the Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize - Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance and Biografi. He has also published a collection of short stories, The Man in the Shed, and an acclaimed memoir, A History of Silence. Lloyd Jones lives in Wellington.

‘The writing reminded me a lot of Anne Tyler–it will be enjoyed by fans of domestic, community drama, but made all the more fascinating and unique because its observations are from within the male perspective.’ bookbrowse.com

‘A gentle, whimsical book…Jones's writing is easy and sophisticated, reminding me of Steinbeck at his humorous best...the whole fanciful sprawl is a delight.’ Age

‘Jones’ deep affection for his characters and the light, anecdotal touch with which he nudges them away from despair makes for a warm and original entertainment.’ Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review

A woman washes ashore in Sicily. She has come from north Africa to find her son, taken from her when he was just days old by his father and stolen away to Berlin. With nothing but her maid's uniform and a knife stashed in a plastic bag, she relies on strangers to guide her passage north.

These strangers tell of their encounters with a quiet, mysterious woman in a blue coat-each account a different view of the truth. And slowly these fragments of a life piece together to create a spellbinding story of the courage of a mother and the versions of truth we create to accommodate our lives.

Lloyd Jones was born in 1955 in Lower Hutt in New Zealand and graduated from Victoria University. He has worked as a journalist and covered Papua New Guinea's blockade of Bougainville during the 1990s, which formed the setting for his bestselling Mister Pip. Jones has received awards including the Katherine Mansfield Memorial fellowship (1988), the Deutz Medal for Fiction, the Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize (2003) and the Montana New Zealand Book Award (2001). In 2007, Jones won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Mister Pip, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and in 2008 he received the New Zealand Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement. His latest book is Hand Me Down World.

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'There are no easy answers in this thoughtful novel. Indeed, much of its intrigue and enjoyment comes from piecing together the story from the myriad voices. Humane and moving, it's a worthy successor to Jones's last novel, the Booker-shortlisted Mister Pip.' Daily Mail

Two mysterious strangers appear at a hotel in a small country town.
Where have they come from? Who are they? What catastrophe are they fleeing?
The townspeople want answers, but the strangers are unable to speak of their trauma. And before long, wary hospitality shifts to suspicion and fear, and the care of the men slides into appalling cruelty.

Lloyd Jones’s fable-like novel The Cage is a profound and unsettling novel about humanity and dignity and the ease with which we’re able to justify brutality.

Lloyd Jones has written novels, short stories and a memoir. He won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for his novel Mister Pip. His other books include Hand Me Down World and A History of Silence. Lloyd lives in Wellington.

‘It is a thought-provoking and affecting book for readers of literary fiction where the morally questionable appears very ordinary.’ Books+Publishing, FOUR STARS

‘A dark fable of imprisonment.’ Sydney Morning Herald, What to Read in 2018

‘Jones builds calmly, rationally, in prose shot through with instances of unexpected beauty and tenderness to a terrible climax.’ Adelaide Advertiser

‘…A thinly disguised allegory of how easily ordinary, civilised people can lose their humanity, which reminded me of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.’ Australian Financial Review

‘A compelling, grimly believable tale.’ Guardian

‘Its mastery lies in its mystery; the skill with which it leaves things unsaid. An audacious and affecting riff on the tenuousness of understanding and the frailty of good intentions. What on earth will the guy do next?’ NZ Herald

‘Simply, clearly and vividly written, the moral dilemma posed in The Cage will linger long in my mind.’ NZ Spin Off, Book of the Week

‘Lloyd Jones’ new and possibly best novel will hold you in its narrative grip from its first page…This is exciting, risk-taking writing…Is it a fable? Probably, although it’s open enough for you to make your own interpretation, possibly more than one. Does it have antecedents? Numerous: Orwell, with the occupants of the hotel constantly watching the occupants of the cage: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, with its air hopeless bleakness; the Kafkaesque way unsettling events are described with deadpan detachment; and all the absurdity and hopelessness of a Beckett play.’ North & South

‘A profound and unsettling allegorical fable…Its powerful message camouflaged by almost fairytale simplicity. The Cage explores how quickly humanity and dignity can segue into brutality when communication breaks down. Trust is revealed as fragile, forever at the mercy of authoritarian impulse.’ Qantas Magazine

‘The puzzle of where the human essence lies and is shared is implicit in Jones' dark parable.’ Age

‘It is (also) brilliant. It compels and repels.

Written in 1947 but not published until 1995, John Hepworth's debut novel is a gripping account of Australian soldiers fighting in New Guinea at the end of World War II.

The product of Hepworth's own experience, The Long Green Shore recounts the lives - and deaths - of a group of soldiers battling the Japanese in the rain-soaked jungle. In sublime prose, it captures the terror and the monotony of war.

On its publication The Long Green Shore was met with immediate critical acclaim. It was recognised as one of the world's great war novels.

John Hepworth was born in 1921 and lived in Melbourne. A journalist, author, playwright and poet, he is well remembered for his contribution to the Nation Review in the 1970s and for his work at the ABC. He wrote many books, some co-authored with Bob Ellis and others illustrated by Michael Leunig. He died in 1995 soon after learning that The Long Green Shore would finally be published.

'Australia's All Quiet on the Western Front...The timeless record of a generation of men who had it hard and copped it sweet, and went off into battle not knowing what the day would bring.' Bob Ellis

'This novel is a masterpiece of war fiction.' Publishers Weekly

Winner of the Tasmania Prize and the Deutz Medal for fiction this is a singular melding of history and imagination.

In August 1905 a party of young men boarded a ship for England. Among them were four farmers, two bootmakers and a boatbuilder. They set out from Auckland, never dreaming they would conquer the world. By December they were the 'wonderful All Blacks' who had beaten Yorkshire, England and Ireland.

They were a tribe far from home, weary, bedazzled, a little lost-but the world showed them wonders: the Eiffel Tower, snow on Tierra del Fuego, English lords, Consomme Sarah Bernhardt. America! But years later, it was something else that remained indelible. A feeling shared, grave and simple, that survived all the acclaim.

'It's a book about blokes, bluff outside, but discerning inside, blokes who speak poetry, the way we all would speak if we could put our finest feelings into words…It's a beautiful book: complete, strong and poetic.' Bulletin

Lloyd Jones was born in 1955 in Lower Hutt in New Zealand and graduated from Victoria University. He has worked as a journalist and covered Papua New Guinea's blockade of Bougainville during the 1990s, which formed the setting for his bestselling Mister Pip. Jones has received awards including the Katherine Mansfield Memorial fellowship (1988), the Deutz Medal for Fiction, the Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize (2003) and the Montana New Zealand Book Award (2001). In 2007, Jones won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Mister Pip, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and in 2008 he received the New Zealand Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement. His latest book is Hand Me Down World.

From New Zealand's greatest living writer, A History of Silence is a moving and devastating memoir unlike any you have ever read before.

A History of Silence is a book about a country and a broken landscape. It's about the devastation in Christchurch, after the 2011 earthquake. It's about how easily we erase stories we find inconvenient. It's about the fault lines which that cataclysmic event opened up in Lloyd Jones' understanding of his own family history.

In A History of Silence Jones embarks on a quest for the truth about his family. What happened? Why do there seem to be so few stories? Why are there so few mementos? The answers he finds are completely unexpected and change everything.

Lloyd Jones was born in New Zealand in 1955. His best-known novel is Mister Pip, which won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the 2008 Kiriyama Prize Fiction Category, the 2008 Montana Award for Readers Choice, the Montana Fiction Award and the Montana Medal for Fiction or Poetry. It was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and has been made into a major feature film, directed by Andrew Adamson. His other books include Hand Me Down World, The Book of Fame, Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance and Biografi. He has also published a collection of short stories, The Man in the Shed. Lloyd Jones lives in Wellington.

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'Lloyd Jones is a master storyteller.' Weekend Australian

'Jones is a daring writer who can be relied on to ignore expectation, and is becoming one of the most interesting, honest and thought-provoking novelists working today.' Guardian

'It would be difficult to think of another novelist as original or fearless as...Lloyd Jones.' Monthly

'Poetically observed detail and an affecting evocation of the past will reward readers interested in the way our history (even, or especially, that which we don't know about) can shape us.' Bookseller and Publisher

'A History of Silence quickly establishes itself as a captivating memoir...Jones has written a brave and remarkable tribute to his forbears.' Readings Monthly

'Memoir shrinks themes and holds them close to the bone. It brings out the poet in Jones as he scours family letters and bureaucratic records in New Zealand and Wales for clues. It's a meandering investigation...but with Jones the meandering is a pleasurable experience, gently paced and studded with lovely phrasing.' Weekend Australian

'The stories Jones uncovers speak of loss, displacement, unbearable sadness, but also courage.' Canberra Times

'Honest and thought-provoking.' Sydney Morning Herald/Saturday Age

'Jones skilfully gives the reader the point of view of the growing child making the best of things in a charmless Wellington suburb, but as the child becomes the man...the book gathers an urgency and poignancy that at times becomes as painful as pulling flesh across barbed wire, and we become aware the lineaments of grand tragedy can be found in the back streets of Lower Hutt.' Otago Daily Times

When Lloyd Jones visited Albania in 1991, six years after the death of dictator Enver Hoxha, he heard rumours of a village dentist who looked like the dictator and had been forced to give up his identity and become his public double. Jones' quest to find Petar Schapallo gives shape not only to an intriguing traveller's tale, but a story about identity-changed, lost or falsified-in a country where identity was strictly controlled.

Part travel narrative, part imaginative fiction, Biografi is an inquiry into the nature of identity itself.

'A fine piece of work, rich in startling detail.' Age

In tango, there are no wrong turns. But every dance begins with a backward step.

This is where Louise and Schmidt's story begins, with a backward step, when they meet in a small town in New Zealand during World War I. When locals are stirred to violence against Schmidt for his German name, he and Louise take refuge in a remote cave overlooking the ocean. There, humming Argentinian songs into her ear, he teaches her the intimate rhythms of the tango-the dance that will bind them forever.

Years later, in her restaurant in Wellington, Rosa, Schmidt's granddaughter, tells Lionel the tale of her grandfather's affair with Louise. And she teaches him to dance.

'Jones crafts a vivid tale of love and the redemption of dance…With his elegant language, Jones moves gracefully between the two stories and time periods, capturing the sensuous interplay between partners in dance and in life.' Publishers Weekly