Delirious
'Wilkins shows us old age, old love, and old loss. A wonderful novel' - Claire Fuller
$32.03
- Paperback
320 pages
- Release Date
11 August 2026
Summary
THE AWARD-WINNING, WORD-OF-MOUTH NEW ZEALAND BESTSELLER
WINNER OF NEW ZEALAND’S JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE
‘I was dazzled by this book’s intimacy, truth and complexity. It has everything I truly love in fiction’ Charlotte Wood, author of Stone Yard Devotional
‘With precise emotional acuity, Wilkins shows us old age, old love, and old loss. A wonderful novel’ Claire Fuller, author of Unsett…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781399762762 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1399762761 |
| Author: | Damien Wilkins |
| Publisher: | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Imprint: | Sceptre |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 320 |
| Release Date: | 11 August 2026 |
| Dimensions: | 216mm x 135mm |
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Critics Review
A New Zealand novel of grace and humanity. How does Wilkins do it? These are flawed and immensely satisfying characters - you close your eyes at the faulty, circuitous routes they take. Delirious is a marvel of a book – Witi Ihimaera, author of The Whale RiderFunny, sharp, sad and profound, Delirious made me laugh, think, weep and actually beat my breast. A masterpiece – Elizabeth Knox, author of The Absolute BookDelirious rearranged me. Utterly absorbing, moving, brilliant. – Emily Perkins, author of LionessI found it amazing that a book about traumatic events was also so funny, and even at times whimsical… . I like it when a novel reflects life so closely and this novel is so close to life it’s almost psychedelic with it: so much detail, and beauty and harshness and weirdness. * Spinoff *This is just a beautifully powerful, wonderful book – Pip Adam, author of The New Animals
I was dazzled by this book’s intimacy, truth and complexity. It has everything I truly love in fiction
– Charlotte Wood, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Stone Yard DevotionalWith precise emotional acuity, Wilkins shows us old age, old love, and old loss. A wonderful novel. – Claire Fuller, author of UNSETTLED GROUNDDelirious is a superb book - Damien Wilkins writes so movingly about grief and loss, the attrition of a long marriage and the humiliations of ageing. And it’s all so cleanly and honestly done. There’s no false comfort here; and yet there is the comfort of reality faced with dignity. Every observation, every psychological insight resonates. There’s not a dull paragraph or a lazy image. – Clare Chambers, author of SMALL PLEASURESDamien Wilkins has somehow managed to capture the very essence of what it is to be human, in this story of ordinary people and extraordinary loss. His characters stumble, and fall, and carry on - and Wilkins carries them through it all with enormous tenderness and grace. A writer in total command of his craft – Claire Gleeson, author of SHOW ME WHERE IT HURTSAbout The Author
Damien Wilkins
Damien Wilkins is the author of fourteen books. He has won the New Zealand Book Award twice: for his first novel, The Miserables, in 1994, and for Delirious, in 2025. He has been longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award four times, and is the recipient of a Whiting Award. He is a professor at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington and director of the International Institute of Modern Letters Te Putahi Tui Auaha o Te Ao.
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