Awards
- Short-listed for PANZ Book Design Awards 2023 (New Zealand)
Overview
'An extraordinary story.' Shaun Bythell, The Diary of a BooksellerRuth Shaw weaves together stories of the characters who visit her bookshops, musings about favourite books, and bittersweet stories from her full and varied life.She's sailed through the Pacific for years, been held up by pirates, worked at Sydney's Kings Cross with drug addicts and prostitutes, campaigned on numerous environmental issues, and worked the yacht Breaksea Girl with her husband, Lance.Underlining all her wanderings and adventures are some very deep losses and long-held pain. Balancing that out is her beautiful love story with Lance, and her delightful sense of humour.This will make you weep and make you laugh and make you want to read more books - and make you want to visit Ruth and her two wee bookshops.'Shaw's writing is pragmatic and restrained; her voice is so strong and assured that when grief appears you gasp at its intrusion and your heart stops a second.' Alexa Dretzke, Readings Hawthorn'Amazing!' Jack Tame, Newstalk ZB'A fascinating, funny and moving story.' Nicky Pellegrino, New Zealand Woman's Weekly'Shaw can write about these peaks and troughs [of her life] without a skerrick of maudlin introspection or mawkishness. Battered and emotionally bruised, she marches on. In a word, dauntless, and it's exactly this quality that makes this memoir so readable.' Chris Moore, NZ Listener'Utterly charming and filled with equal measures of heartbreak and humour, Ruth Shaw's memoir will have you booking the first flight to New Zealand to share a cup of tea at her Wee Bookshops. Shaw has been a cook, a nurse, sailor and world traveller, and endured immeasurable loss. But with Lance, the love of her life, Shaw has found her place bookselling in Fiordland.'Booksellers' Choice Australia'Compelling. Shaw tells her own story free of over-sentimentality or self-pity; she's straightforward, frequently humorous... Her resilience, optimism and willingness to help others is to be admired; her remarkable story is to be read and reflected upon as it adds another vital perspective to a NZ life.' Dionne Christian, Sunday Star Times
Full Product Details
Author: Ruth Shaw ,
Ruth Shaw
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Imprint: Allen & Unwin
Dimensions:
Width: 14.80cm
, Height: 22.20cm
, Length: 2.70cm
Weight: 0.470kg
ISBN: 9781988547756
ISBN 10: 198854775
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 01 April 2022
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
'A fascinating, funny and moving story.' Nicky Pellegrino, NZ Woman's Weekly 'Shaw can write about these peaks and troughs [of her life] without a skerrick of maudlin introspection or mawkishness. Battered and emotionally bruised, she marches on. In a word, dauntless, and it's exactly this quality that makes this memoir so readable.' Chris Moore, NZ Listener
Author Information
Ruth Shaw runs a cluster of wee bookshops in remote Manapōuri in the far south of New Zealand. She lives with her husband, Lance. In 2022 she published her first memoir, The Bookseller at the End of the World, which has since become a critically acclaimed national and international treasure. It has been translated into Italian, Dutch, German, Turkish and Chinese and will be available in Swedish, Russian, Slovakian and Korean soon. Her second book Bookshop Dogs came out in October 2023, and instantly became a NZ bestseller. It will be coming out in the UK (Sept 2024), in the US (Nov 2024) and will be translated into Italian and Russian.
