Wednesday’s Children
Wednesday’s Children returns to print in this beautifully designed edition, celebrating the enduring work of Robin Hyde.
Set in 1930s New Zealand, the novel follows Wednesday Gilfillan, an independent woman who rejects societal expectations in favour of a life defined by artistic and emotional freedom. On an isolated island, she creates a home for her remarkable children and other characters drawn into her life by circumstance. The novel explores her journey through love, loss and survival, focusing on her defiance against the constraints imposed on women—particularly female artists—in a patriarchal society. In vivid prose, Hyde critiques middle-class respectability and delves into the personal costs of living an unconventional life.
With striking cover art by Star Gossage and a new preface and afterword by Genevieve Scanlan, this fresh edition revives a poignant narrative that remains deeply relevant to contemporary readers.
‘Anyone who has ever felt torn between the urge to run away from the world and the urge to improve it will find something resonant in this book.’
—Genevieve Scanlan
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Reviews and Interviews
'Lyrical in its use of imagery, the prose is vivid and idiosyncratic. Some readers may find Hyde’s descriptive richness challenging, but her language is part of what makes the book endure. She paints landscapes and emotions with a poet’s precision, evoking Auckland’s harbours, sand dunes, and streets with rare intensity. The result is a narrative that feels local and, at the same time, universal. In the end, Wednesday’s Children stands as a profoundly humane work – an exploration of freedom and identity that continues to speak to modern readers.'
Chris Reed for NZ Booklovers Read
About the author
Robin Hyde
Robin Hyde, born Iris Wilkinson in Cape Town in 1906, was raised in Wellington, New Zealand. A journalist from the age of 17, she published her first poetry collection in 1929. Between 1935 and 1938, she wrote five novels, including...
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Your Unselfish Kindness 
Nor the Years Condemn