Fiona Sussman

SUSSMAN, Fiona (1965 - ) was born in Johannesburg and now lives in Auckland, after moving to New Zealand in 1989. She received a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English and Psychology from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1986, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from Auckland University in 1993. Her career as a doctor in hospital, family planning and general practice was overtaken by her writing, which became a full-time occupation for her in 2003, and she went on to achieve a Masters of Creative Writing from the Auckland University of Technology in 2009.

Sussman first came to attention as a writer of short stories. A Very Important Date (2008), The Oath (2009), The Bottom Line (2011) and Black Toes (2013) have all been broadcast on RNZ National. The Gift won the Graeme Lay Short Story Competition in 2012, and Black Toes was runner-up in the Royal College of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing in the same year. Roading (2012) and The Fall (2016) were both published in takahē. Fiona’s story titled Mad Men won the Sunday Times Short Story Award 2018.

Sussman’s first novel was Shifting Colours, (Allison&Busby (UK), 2014), published as Another Woman’s Daughter in the US (Berkley (Penguin USA), 2014). Described by Fay Weldon as "a highly emotional, instantly readable, unusually intelligent and satisfying novel about the days of apartheid in South Africa", it begins in Johannesburg in 1959 and narrates the experience of characters who live under apartheid, as well as those who escape it.

Her second novel, The Last Time We Spoke (Allison & Busby (UK), 2016), was described by the Sunday Mirror (UK) as “a gripping story of grief and redemption.”Its setting is rural New Zealand and tells the story of a vicious home invasion and its aftermath. It won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel New Zealand in 2017 and was shortlisted for the New Zealand Heritage Award in 2016.

In April 2020, Sussman’s short story A Breath, A Bunk, A Land, A Sky was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Fiona’s third novel Addressed to Greta was published by Bateman Books in 2020. It was named winner of NZ Booklover's Best Adult Fiction Prize, with the judges commenting, "You must meet Greta, one of the most well-realised and endearing figures in recent New Zealand fiction."

In October 2022, a fourth novel, The Doctor's Wife was published by Bateman Books, and promptly made The Listener's 'Best 100 Books of 2022' list. In a review for Kete, Jessie Neilson describes it as a superb crime novel in which "Sussman builds a world of restrained mannerisms with behaviour set to implode."

Sussman is also very active as a teacher of writing and as a mentor to writers, speaking and writing about writing practice, and she has appeared at both the Auckland Writers Festival and Bloody Scotland (in Stirling, Scotland).

MEDIA LINKS AND CLIPS

Fiona Sussman’s website

Sussman on Facebook

RNZ interview with Sussman

Booksellers New Zealand review of Shifting Colours

The Otago Daily Times review of The Last Time We Spoke, named as one of the Best Books of 2016

The New Zealand Herald interview with Sussman.

Kete review of The Doctor's Wife