Popular 'wee' bookshops owner and author Ruth Shaw returns with memoir sequel

Beyond the serene Lake Manapōuri and ever-changing scenery at the edge of Fiordland National Park, three wee book shops draw in busloads of tourists who are queueing up outside with a copy of best-selling 2022 memoir, The Bookseller at the End of the World.

The overwhelming global response to the book, which has been translated into 16 languages, has made author and bookshop owner Ruth Shaw so busy that two months ago she enlisted the help of her personal assistant to help with responding to all the fan mail.

"It's kind of overwhelming, really. I wasn't expecting this, and it's just got bigger and bigger," says the 79-year-old, who is back with her sequel Three Wee Bookshops at the End of the World.

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"It's just mind-boggling ... I got to the stage where I wasn't giving it my best [in responding to every letter] and you've been there, where you know in your heart you're not giving it your best and you want to because of how precious people are."

Demand has been strong for a sequel to her memoir in which Shaw writes about being raped at 17, being forced to give up her son for adoption, losing another child at birth, joining the navy, having her wedding to the love of her life called off at the last minute, sailing adventures, and working as a welfare officer to sex workers in Sydney's King Cross.

"It was difficult for a lot of women back then, and it's interesting how many women speak about it to me. You really didn't have an option. There was no support except from your own family and you were shipped away [when having a child out of wedlock]," Shaw tells Sunday Morning.

"You kind of got moved, relocated, so you could have a baby and then come back as though nothing had happened. As I said in the book, it's the start of a life of telling lies. Because people say, 'oh, you must have had a wonderful time in Wellington, what did you do? Where did you work?' All those kind of things.

"So you have this false life and you have to stick to that story. It's a very uncomfortable situation to be in. You want to tell the truth and you want to go through mourning and you can't."

Shaw was first approached by publisher Allen & Unwin to write a book after her interview about her bookshops and personal life on RNZ with Kim Hill in 2020.

"I didn't realise my first book would have such an impact, but there's been even men [who] come and thank me for writing it and I've always wanted to help people, but I never realised that by writing a book I would help so many people around the world.

"I think when I decided to write that book and also the sequel, I said 'well, if I'm going to write it has to be the blood and guts of everything', not just the good bits, but all the harsh bits and the hard bits and I had to be honest, I wasn't going to whitewash anything."

However, Shaw didn't want to put out another book without being sure that it was going to be good enough to be published. She also needed a break from reliving the emotional turmoil of her past, so she embarked on a lighter book about dogs.

"You can push it aside, but it's always there and [to a] much lesser degree of course, but it's always there," she says of the trauma from her rape.

"Then all of a sudden something will happen and it will come back. It's a surprise every time it really hits you hard, you think, 'oh my God, after all these years, it's still there'.

"But when I wrote about it ... it was like reliving it in many ways, and I was a mess. I was angry. I didn't want to shelter anybody, but I also had to be very, very careful that I didn't give away enough facts for anyone who read it to know who did it.

"And then putting it aside again writing it, thinking, 'thank God that's over' and not going back to it for a long time. So it was hard to write, but it was important that I wrote it."

Her tiny bookshops have become havens of connection, reflection, and represented the unexpected ways books can bring people together in even the most far-flung corners of the world.

"I think without even realising it, I think I've given a voice to many women. Sometimes a woman or - quite frequently actually - somebody will come to the bookshop, they'll see me, and they'll burst out crying.

"It's as though they've pent up something for years and they see me and at long last, they can talk about what they haven't spoken about and they just weep. Then, of course, I start crying and so dear Lance will come and take over while we come in here and cry or talk."

Her second part to her memoir, Three Wee Bookshops at the End of the World, picks up from the age of 35 in 1985 where she's reconnected with her son and delves into her grandson breaking his methamphetamine addiction.

Similar to her first book, it will have relatable stories for many people who grew up feeling shunned or having lost dear ones, she says.

Because of New Zealand laws which prevented biological parents from tracing their adopted children before the age of 21, Shaw embarked on her own investigation to look for her son Andrew when he turned 20, getting hints from agencies and pouring through electoral rolls.

"I've been very, very lucky because so many women have come to see me that had to give up their children and have found them and frequently it has not gone well. But for me, I was very, very lucky. We clicked straight away."

She's now married to Lance, the man who she fell in love with and got engaged to 21 before a falling out over her parent's wishes for their children to be raised as Catholics.

"If we [would] have got married [at 21], I doubt very much if it would have worked because I hadn't worked through any issues of the rape, of having a baby, giving the baby away ... As I said in the sequel, it wasn't all roses. I was still in the running mode and I hadn't really gone to counselling for anything and I was extremely difficult to live with.

"I get to the stage where I get overwhelmed. I'm also a bit of a perfectionist and I have very high standards for myself. So with Lance, he's more than an anchor for me. He will say to me 'love, you know, things aren't good at the moment' and makes me stop and look at myself."