Kaka's nest books

The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars: I really liked this book, but it had minor flaws

There are bookshops that stock stories—and then there are bookshops that become stories in themselves. Ruth Shaw’s Two Wee Bookshops, tucked away in the wild beauty of Fiordland, fall firmly into the second camp. This is not just a tale about selling books in a remote part of Aotearoa—it’s about the human mosaic that forms around a shared love of words, connection, and, sometimes, a cuppa and a cry.

Shaw’s memoir meanders in the best possible way. She weaves vignettes of life behind the counter with flashbacks to the rougher waters of her own past: wild youth, long voyages, deep losses, hard reckonings. She doesn’t tidy these moments up for comfort. There’s no self-mythologising here. Instead, we get an unflinching honesty that somehow feels like a gift—given gently, never forced.

And here’s the thing: even when the subject matter gets heavy (and it does), Shaw knows how to hold the space. There’s a knowing laugh, a dry aside, a perfectly placed anecdote that keeps the book from drifting into sentimentality.

For readers who’ve ever felt adrift, or wondered what it means to start again (and again), this is a gentle companion. For book lovers, it’s a quiet reminder of the magic that happens when you open a cover—or a door—and let someone in.

Ruth Shaw’s The Bookshop at the End of the World and the sequel Three Wee Bookshops at the End of the World are great reads. Check them out before visiting Manapouri, Fiordland.