Hannah Tunnicliffe is a New Zealander who has lived in Canada, Australia, England and Macau, and is a constant traveller. She writes the blog Fork and Fiction, about food, family and books, with her Canadian friend Ria Voros. In her new novel, A French Wedding (Macmillan), a group of friends gather in a country house in France for a 40th birthday.
Prodigal Summer
Barbara Kingsolver
I am a die-hard Kingsolver fan girl. Of all her books, Prodigal Summer, which elegantly weaves together the interrelated narratives of three people living in southern Appalachia, cemented my love for her writing. Kingsolver's talents grow with every book she publishes. She manages to create rich, complex, strong, lovable characters while presenting environmental and social issues for examination and discussion. Just quietly: Kingsolver for president.
Anne of Green Gables
L.M. Montgomery
I know my copy of Anne of Green Gables so well I can tell you without looking at it that there is a tear in the chapter "Tempest in a Teapot", a green ink stain on the tops of the pages and the whole book is warped from being dropped in the bath too many times. If my three daughters, when they are old enough to read this book, don't love plucky, imaginative, charming Anne Gilbert I might be a little heartbroken.
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath
I was a teenager when I read The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath's semi-autobiographical account of a young woman in 1950s America trapped by societal stereotypes and affected by mental illness. I was so moved and rattled by this book, which felt very real, raw and relevant to me, that it's the only one of the four books I have chosen that I have never re-read.
Potiki
Patricia Grace
"There was a warmth and stillness in the night and it was sweet and salt-smelling …" Potiki was the first Patricia Grace novel I read and it tells the story of a Maori boy, his family and community and the threats that face them. Grace's writing is lyrical, moving, rich and, above all, thrums with integrity. Grace herself is a mother of seven children, a teacher, an author, a campaigner and an inspiration for all New Zealanders.
