The tiny bookshop in Home Street, Manapouri is very busy. Adults and children, locals and tourists are coming and going.

Owner, Ruth Shaw greets them and talks to everyone.

They congratulate her on her achievement. She has recently published a book, The Bookseller at the end of the World, and on the morning of my visit Kathryn Ryan’s interview with Ruth was broadcast on Radio New Zealand (RNZ). 

Ruth Shaw with her recently published bestseller, in front of her Wee Bookshop at Manapouri. Photo: Alina Suchanski

The inspiration for the memoir came two years ago when Ruth was interviewed by another well known RNZ presenter, Kim Hill.

For years people who knew Shaw, including her husband Lance, encouraged her to write a book about her life, but it wasn’t till after the interview with Hill, that two publishers contacted Shaw with proposals to sign a contract with her for a book. 

She chose Allen & Unwin NZ, which proved to be a good choice, as she developed a great relationship with this publishing company.

It took away all the stressful aspects of producing a book – proofreading, editing, graphic design, printing, promotion and distribution. All she had to do was to write her story. 

Shaw says that she had propensity for writing from a very young age. She kept a diary and wrote lots of short stories. When she was in Papua New Guinea, she wrote for a children’s page in the local newspaper. What also helped to trigger her memory, were letters and newspaper clippings, of which she is a self-proclaimed hoarder. It took her just six months to complete her story.

Judged by its cover, with a hand drawing of her wee bookshop set amidst a tangle of native vegetation, Shaw’s memoir The Bookseller at the End of the World, could be taken for a children’s story.

Valla and Freya Wilkinson visit Ruth Shaw's second Wee Bookshop - designed especially for children. Photo: Alina Suchanski

However, that it certainly isn’t, for inside its benevolent-looking covers, is a story of some harrowing experiences and outrageous adventures that took its author from her birthplace – Christchurch, where she spent the first 10 years of her life, through Nasby, to the islands of the Pacific, where she had a close encounter with some pirates, to Papua New Guinea, where she taught the locals how to prepare meals for an airline, to Australia, where she worked as a counsellor to Sydney’s King’s Cross drug addicts and prostitutes, to Manapouri, Fiordland, where she finally found love, peace and happiness and where she’s lived for the last 37 years.

In her life she experienced rape, death of her child, four marriages, a spell in a psychiatric hospital, and love lost and found.

Ruth and Lance fell in love at a young age, but their paths had parted and didn’t reconvene until much later.

It was that getting back together with him that Shaw considers an absolute highlight of her life.

She loves living in Manapouri.

“It’s just the right size. I have everything I need here and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else,” she declares.

At 75 she derives a great satisfaction from her wee bookshops doing well and her book being a success.

Publicity Manager for Allen & Unwin, Abba Renshaw, says that “Ruth’s book has been number 2 on the NZ non-fiction bestseller charts since it released two weeks ago, and she has been interviewed for Sunday Star-Times, NZ Woman’s Weekly, Newstalk ZB and Seven Sharp, and even some major international press. All very unusual for a first-time author.”

She has also signed a contract for a second book.

WIN A COPY OF RUTH'S BOOK

CLICK HERE to go into the draw to win a copy of Ruth's book "The Bookseller at the end of the world".

Visit Two Wee Bookshops, 1 Home Street, Manapouri, or phone 03 249 6664 to purchase from the author.

The Bookseller at the End of the World is also available from Paper Plus stores for $36.99.