In praise of: Nicky Pellegrino

It is census night here in New Zealand so what better time to consider the top 20 New Zealand fiction titles borrowed from Auckland public library system last year:

1. The Forrests

Emily Perkins

2. The villa girls

Nicky Pellegrino

3. The conductor

Sarah Quigley

4. Skylark

Jenny Pattrick

5. Dolci di love

Sarah-Kate Lynch

6. Angels' flight

Nalini Singh

7. The Italian wedding

Nicky Pellegrino

8. Recipe for life

Nicky Pellegrino

9. When in Rome

Nicky Pellegrino

10. Hand me down world

Lloyd Jones

11. Kiss of snow

Nalini Singh

12. The open world

Stephanie Johnson

13. Death on demand

Paul Thomas

14. Archangel's blade

Nalini Singh

15. Dinner at Rose's

Danielle Hawkins

16. Landings

Jenny Pattrick

17. Archangel's storm

Nalini Singh

18. The faceless

Vanda Symon

19 =. Mister Pip

Lloyd Jones

19 =. The Larnachs

Owen Marshall

Not only does Nicky Pellegrino have four titles in the top 10 of this list of most-borrowed books from Auckland libraries for 2012, but also her books sell like hotcakes. Ask any bookseller. 

She must be one of New Zealand’s most biggest best-selling authors ever. But she has never registered in the top 10 bestseller lists of NZ books published every Friday by Booksellers NZ because her books are published overseas and what we get are imported editions. So she is not considered a New Zealand author even though she lives here and all her novels were written here. I have pointed out the folly of this strange criterion to the good people at Booksellers NZ – and also to the CEO, Lincoln Gould – but to no avail. 

It’s not just Nicky. Yesterday Craig Ranapia tweeted:

Last person who said “I never read New Zealand literature” to me, had just finished gushing about Paul Cleave. Bless.