Book Launch: Sorry Rock by Thalia Henry

Event details: 

Saturday, August 8, 2026
5:30 PM 7:00 PM
Time Out Bookstore
432 Mount Eden Road, Auckland, 1024, New Zealand

About the novel: 

On the wild west coast of Aotearoa New Zealand, twelve-year-old Ned lives with his mother in a bach above Te Henga’s black sand beach. He is thoughtful and observant, the sort of boy who knows that too much in his life is unexplained. His cousin Hugo is different. Restless, he pushes towards trouble. Alice stands apart from them, older, still tethered to memories of a childhood in the Northern Territory.

With an ochre rock at the beating heart of this story, their journey draws Ned, Hugo, and Alice from New Zealand’s volcanic shoreline to Australia’s red desert. Along theway, they begin to uncover the silences surrounding the women who raised them, absent fathers, and the consequences of choices made long before they were old enough to question.

About the author: 

Thalia Henry lives in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa New Zealand, and grew up in the coastal town of Karitāne, Otago. Her second novel, Sorry Rock, moves between Te Henga (Bethells Beach) and Australia’s Northern Territory, tracing fragile relationships across black sand and red ochre.

Her debut novel, Beneath Pale Water, won a Gold Award at the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) in the Australia/New Zealand Best Regional Fiction category.

Thalia’s work also appears in UK and New Zealand anthologies, including Botanical Short Stories (The History Press). She has developed work for the stage.

Find out more about the event here!