Catherine Chidgey’s Transformation continues to be the top story of the moment, with reviews in the weekend papers and the lead piece in today’s Listener. But reviewer David Eggleton seems less impressed than most. Despite the novel’s “rich and poetic textures” he says that Chidgey “drones on like a dusty museum guide”. He concludes: “It begins powerfully and paces itself well. The denouement, however is disappointing, hastily abandoned rather than resolved. It fizzles out, stranding the characters.”

Also in the Listener: Diana Mosly’s autobiography, A Life of Contrasts (picture), Taua (Angela Ballara), The Heather and the Fern: Scottish Migration and New Zealand Settlement (Tom Brooking and Jennie Coleman), Making Our Place: Growing Up PI In New Zealand (Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop and Gabrielle Makisi), and Oatcakes To Otago: A Chronicle of Dunedin's Scottish Heritage by Donald Offwood.