Lloyd Jones Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Children's Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Lloyd Jones is an accomplished published New Zealand author.

Born in 1955 in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, it is a place that has become a much used setting and subject for his fiction writing. Lloyd studied at Victoria University, working as a journalist and a consultant in addition to being a writer. He lives in Wellington.

In 1988, the author received the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship. In 1994, Lloyd curated an exhibition which showed the New Zealand Saturday. The event was held at the National Library in Wellington and was a massive collaboration with Bruce Foster, a photographer. It was published as ‘The Last Saturday’ and featured historical photographs, contemporary photographs taken by Foster, and an essay by the author.

A theatrical adaptation of his novel The Book of Fame was put on in May of 2003 at Wellington’s Downstage Theatre. He received the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Overall Best Book Award in May of 2007 for Mister Pip, his novel that is set in the Bougainville Civil War of the early nineties. The novel was also shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction (while taking on a Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers’ Residency the same year) and won the Kiriyama Prize for Mister Pip.

In addition to many novels, Lloyd has also written a collection of short stories that was released in 1991 that is titled Swimming to Australia. He also released a children’s picture book in 2003 that was titled Napoleon and the Chicken Farmer, and then wrote a book for kids aged nine to fourteen that was titled Everything You Need to Know About the World.

He also compiled Into the Field of Play: New Zealand Writers on the Theme of Sport, as well as the semi-fictional account of the 1905 All-Black Tour titled The Book of Fame, which was published in 2000 and ended up being adapted for the stage in 2003 by Carol Nixon. Jones has also released a memoir titled A History of Silence.

The Cage is a 2018 novel by Lloyd Jones. If you have been searching for something new and interesting to read, be sure to check out this profound fable-like novel that is all about dignity, humanity, and even the ease with which people are able to justify brutality.

When two strangers show up at a hotel located in a small town in the country, their mysterious arrival sparks all types of questions. It’s wondered who the people are, where they have come from, and whether they are fleeing a catastrophe of some kind.

The people in the town want the answers from the strangers, but whatever they have been through and whoever they are, the newcomers appear completely unable to speak about the trauma that they have endured.

It is not too long before the hospitality that they have shown gives way to fear and suspicion. A little more time, the care of the men goes from run of the mill into cruelty that an outsider would find appalling. Can they rectify their treatment of these strangers, or has their arrival sparked the reveal of a darker side and nature that was always there– and cannot be reversed? Read this fascinating novel from Lloyd Jones for yourself to find out!

Many people and publications have had nothing but good things to say about this novel as well. Books + Publishing has called the book ‘thought-provoking’ and ‘affecting for readers of literary fiction’. The Sydney Morning Herald in their What to Read in 2018 has referred to the book as a ‘dark fable of imprisonment’.

The Adelaide Advertiser says that the book is full of prose that is ‘shot through with instances of unexpected beauty and tenderness’. Meanwhile, the Australian Financial Review compared the book to Lord of the Flies, commenting on how easy it is for regular, civilized people to ‘lose their humanity’. Guardian called the story a ‘compelling, grimly believable tale’ and the NZ Spin Off picked the novel as its book of the week, calling it ‘clearly and vividly written’. If you are interested even more in The Cage as a result of these reviews, check it out and see what all of these people (and publications) like about it!

The Fish is a 2022 novel from Lloyd Jones. If you have read some of this author’s work before and enjoyed it, be sure to check out one of the more modern stories that he has released and see what you think.

When the main character’s troubled sister gives birth to a baby, in a run down caravan at a remote beach park, it becomes apparent that he is different from the other babies. He’s not the kind of baby that anyone anticipated, and he is shocking in the way that he has an otherness to him.

Regardless of this, the family is going to do their best to try and accept this baby in addition to protecting and loving him. The main character attempts to not only make some sense of his family and all of the shame and the secrets that comes with them but also to try and find a way for himself in the world and carve out his own identity.

This story of family bonds that get strengthened or strained by tragedy is lyrically composed by Lloyd Jones and is a work of fiction that you won’t want to miss.