WHAT IS NEW ZEALAND’S BIGGEST-EVER SELLING NOVEL?

Bookman Beattie makes a punt.

As a book reviewer and book blogger I do not of course have access to publishers’ sales figures but someone asked me the other day which novel written by a New Zealand novelist and originally published in New Zealand has achieved higher world-wide sales than any other. My answer was that I couldn’t be sure but that my guess is it is one of the following three:

THE BONE PEOPLE - Keri Hulme

THE WHALE RIDER – Witi Ihimaera

ONCE WERE WARRIORS – Alan Duff

And probably in fourth place would be MISTER PIP by Lloyd Jones.

Let us consider my three leading contenders.

THE BONE PEOPLE.
Keri Hulme’s remarkable novel stunned the literary world by winning the Booker Prize in 1985, the only New Zealand author to have ever done so. It is 25 years this month since The Bone People was first published by the Spiral Collective, (a remarkable group of women by the way). Later the New Zealand branches of Penguin Books, Collins, and Hodder & Stoughton all competed to buy rights from the Spiral Collective with Bert Hingley, publishing director at Hodders finally winning out. Hodders are now part of the Hachette Group although the book is now a Pan MacMillan paperback in this market,(cover shown). I remember well those days as I was the one leading the bidding for Penguin Books. It was subsequently published in the UK and the US and was translated into a number of other languages.
Goodness knows what the sales figures are, the book remains in print and indeed the US publisher plans a special new edition in 2010 to mark their 25th anniversary of publishing.
My guess is that the sales will be close to 250,000.

THE WHALE RIDER
Witi Ihimaera’s 1987 story of the legendary “whale rider’ in the tribal lore of a tribe on the east coast north of Gisborne started quietly enough and enjoyed steady but unspectacular sales until it was made into a movie by South Pacific Pictures in 2002. The movie was subsequently screened at film festivals around the globe which led to a huge demand for the book resulting in a number of translations. Reed Publishing (now part of Penguin Books NZ) published several editions of the title over the years including a new especially handsome hardcover edition in 2007 (cover shown) to mark the book's 20th anniversary.
My guess is that worldwide sales will be approaching 200,000.


ONCE WERE WARRIORS
Alan Duff’s first published novel Once Were Warriors had a huge and immediate impact on readers everywhere, ended up being translated into more than a dozen languages, was made into a highly successful movie which enjoyed world wide sales and sold more than 100,000 copies in NZ alone. Overseas sales may have been as high as the local sales so my guess is that this title sales will also be approaching 200,000.
Once were Warriors was published by Tandem Press (now part of Random House NZ) in 1990 and like the other titles in this list has never been out of print.

Which leaves just Lloyd Jones’ MISTER PIP which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007, and has been published in a number of editions and languages. Because of its more recent publication it is hard to imagine that sales are anywhere near that achieved by the other three titles yet although I wouldn’t be surprised to learn they are around the 150,000 mark.
So I’m calling the bone people in at number one, with a toss up for second and third with Mister Pip at #4.

WHAT IS YOUR CHOICE? ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT THESE BOOKS, MY GUESS AT THEIR SALES NUMBERS, OR ANY OTHER TITLES YOU WISH TO THROW INTO THE RING?

Please post any comments you wish to make, it would be especially interesting to hear from the publishers and authors concerned.