Ordinary People Like Us

by Kelly Ana Morey

The stunning final novel from one of New Zealand's finest writers. Ambitious, funny, wise and deeply affecting, Ordinary People Like Us calls to mind the immersive narratives of Elena Ferrante and Isabel Allende.

'And here I was thinking we were just ordinary people.'

From the gumfields of the Far North, through inner-city Auckland and across oceans to London, Ordinary People Like Us follows five generations of Māori women as the world around them changes - and they change with it.

Bird. Kaa. Annie. Jen. Lorna. Pax.
Where should we start?
What is there to know?

They love fiercely and have secrets they'll take to the grave. They endure loss so great the future feels impossible. They carry the past in their bodies and in stories handed down like heirlooms.

But their fates are not shaped by history or ghosts. They forge their own paths, in the everyday choices and small acts of courage that make up the glittering fabric of their lives. The ordinary conversations that mean nothing and everything all at once.

Expansive and intimate, Ordinary People Like Us is a powerful story about family and the ways that love always pulls us home.

416 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2026

About the author

Kelly Ana Morey (born 1968) is a novelist and poet from New Zealand.

She grew up in New Guinea & currently lives in Kaipara

extract from Wikipedia

Reviews

[The Student Literature Section · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Kelly Ana Morey's sixth and final novel, Ordinary People Like Us, comes roughly a year after the author's death in September 2025. Morey had not finished what she considered to be her great New Zealand novel at the time of her death, and it was instead completed by Catherine Chidgey and Harriet Allan. This tragedy, however, adds a compelling dimension to a novel which is constantly interrupted by the voices of three older women in the Devich family who chatter and comment on the lives of their daughters and granddaughters. Morey's own voice now joins them, watching over what is possibly her most ambitious novel.
The story begins in 1865 with Nana Bird, a Māori woman working in the gumfields of Te Hāpua in northern New Zealand. The following 400 pages track the lives of her, her daughter Kaa, granddaughter Annie, great-granddaughters Jen and Lorna, and at last Lorna's daughter Pax as the family navigates the 20th century and travels towards metropolitan and, later, cosmopolitan life in Auckland and in London.
Such an expansive story gives rise to a narrative style which is initially quite disorientating. The narrative voice which shifts between third- and first-person, being disrupted by the three kēhua (spirits) all the while, remains distant and reserved. This is especially confronting when recounting emotionally invested events like marriage, childbirth, and death. What results is more akin to a sketch than a novel.
However, its distance reveals resonances within the main characters’ lives: they are painted with the same broad brushstrokes, if not with the same colours. For the kēhua—anchor-points of this narrative voice who seem able to access time all at once—the personal tragedies that mark individual lives are in fact evidence of a steady rhythm in a changing world. As the women move through the 20th century, their heritage, material conditions, position in the workplace, and attitudes towards family life evolve dramatically. But the same patterns of adventure, love, and fulfilment emerge again and again. The delight of this book is that it passes on its tranquillity in the face of such change to its reader: an increasingly necessary pause in modern life.

[Dylan Bland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a friend - and I’m really glad to have read it. It’s not a book I’d have ordinarily picked up - but by the end I was so invested in the characters I really wanted to see how their story ends. It’s fictional - but, being set in Auckland and parts of Northland, so familiar and set in reality it felt real to me. It was fun reading about Grey Lynn, Herne Bay, K Road - but some characters that led such different lives to me. I smiled when the story went to Brazil cafe on K Rd, an old favourite of mine. The novel follows five generation of Maori women as they navigate their lives from childhood through to death. Like the title of the book suggests, their lives are ordinary on the outside, but like all of us, filled with depth - joys and sorrows. The book is a celebration of life, but also death. So well written and easy to recommend.

[Maia Ramsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m always partial to a multi-generational family saga.

[Ruthita · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

So lovely to step into an NZ wahine multi-generational story. Although it follows largely from the 40’s on, following Annie’s story, it pushes back to her mum and grandma so you get the sense of the whanau lines. So nice to step into Aotearoa, as the story weaves through into Annie’s children - Lorna and Jen, and Pax in the next generation after that. If you lived in Auckland you’d probably froth on the memories, and streets and areas mentioned. I enjoyed reading about the area in yesteryear times from 40’s on, and on to 2000’s - Brazil - I loved that cafe!
This book was edited by two author friends after the book was incomplete by the author after she passed. I can’t help but wonder what parts were added or edited, as it did switch at one point to first person from Third and some other sections I noticed too. Hard to know what is intentional or not, but it wasn’t too jarring for me, and was still enjoyable easy and familiar read.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely stunning gripping warm (and occasionally sad) read which hooked me from page 1. The incredible familiarity of the Auckland scenes, reflecting my personal life, then the London scenes spent in a time when I lived there...But even without that amount of reader buy in I would have loved this intergenerational story of NZ women. Bird, Kaa, Annie, Jen, Lorna and Pax. Maori, Dally and Pakeha NZ lives are seamlessly interwoven. There is no glossing, these are real people living everyday lives but always with money saved in case you need to run away. I would give this 6 stars if I could.

[Jacqui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, my heart. This was stunning.

[Lee Rowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly brilliant.