100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide Delivery πŸš€ Thank you for supporting our 100% NZ-owned store ❀️

Blue Nights

3.94 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 46,841 ratings, 5,440 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Blue Nights by Joan Didion is a poignant exploration of grief and memory, centred around the author's reflections on the loss of her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne. Through profound meditations on aging, parenthood, and the fleeting passage of time, Didion crafts an intimate narrative that examines vulnerabilities and the enduring impact of loss. This memoir offers a deeply personal perspective on the complexities of family, love, and resilience.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2100
Elsewhere:
$2299
OVERNIGHT NZ-WIDE DELIVERY

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you appreciate deeply personal and poignant reflections on grief, loss, and ageing. Joan Didion's lyrical prose offers insight into the nuances of love and memory, making it a compelling choice for those who are drawn to introspective and emotionally resonant memoirs.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

From one of our most powerful writers, a classic work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter.

A powerful parenting journey through adversity and healing

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

From one of our most powerful writers, a classic work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter.

Richly textured with bits of her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion examines her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness, and growing old.

Blue Nights opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion thinks back to Quintana’s wedding in New York seven years before. Today would be her wedding anniversary. This fact triggers vivid snapshots of Quintana’s childhood β€” in Malibu, in Brentwood, at school in Holmby Hills. Reflecting on her daughter but also on her role as a parent, Didion asks the candid questions any parent might about how she feels she failed either because cues were not taken or perhaps displaced. β€˜How could I have missed what was clearly there to be seen?’ Finally, perhaps we all remain unknown to each other.

Blue Nights β€” the long, light evening hours that signal the summer solstice, β€˜the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but also its warning’ β€” like The Year of Magical Thinking before it, is an iconic book of incisive and electric honesty.

β€˜This is a beautiful and devastating book by one of the finest writers we have’ β€” Zadie Smith

β€˜Searing, informative and affecting. Don’t leave life without it.’ β€” Financial Times

Notes to John, the remarkable recently discovered journal from Joan Didion is available now

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Blue Nights by Joan Didion is lauded for its beautiful prose and poignant exploration of aging and loss. Reviewers highlight Didion's brutally honest depiction of her own frailty and the loneliness that accompanies old age, making it both a heart-wrenching and life-affirming read. Her writing is praised as essential and devastatingly beautiful, offering deep insights into the themes of illness and mortality.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780007432905

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 June 2012

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Fourth Estate Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 16.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 190g

Pages: 208

About the Author

Joan Didion is one of America's most respected writers, her work constituting some of the greatest portraits of modern-day American culture. Over the four decades of her career, she has produced widely-acclaimed journalistic essays, personal essays, novels, non-fiction, memoir and screenplays. Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking won the National Book Award in 2005.

Also by Joan Didion

View all
  • The Year of Magical Thinking
    The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion is a profoundly moving and unflinchingly honest memoir that delves deep into the heart of grief and mourning. This poignant narrative recounts Didion's life-altering year following the sudden death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and the severe illness of their only daughter, Quintana Roo. In the days leading up to Christmas...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Year of Magical Thinking
    Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty. John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their daughter fall ill. At first,...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Play It As It Lays
    Play It As It Lays is a striking exploration of American life in the late 1960s, penned by the acclaimed author Joan Didion, also known for her works The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking. Set against the arid backdrop of the Nevada desert and the insidious glitter of Hollywood, this novel revolves around Maria Wyeth, a once-promising...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Slouching Towards Bethlehem
    Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion is a seminal collection of essays that offers an incisive look into the 1960s America. Published in 1968, this work captures the tumultuous spirit of the era, delving into the cultural and political upheavals that defined the decade. With an unparalleled reportorial voice, Didion chronicles her experiences and observations, shedding light on the rapid...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Notes to John
    An extraordinary, previously unpublished work from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights, Joan Didion. In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had 'a rough few years.' She described the sessions in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne. For several...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The White Album
    Joan Didion’s hugely influential collection of essays which defines, for many, the America which rose from the ashes of the Sixties. We tell ourselves stories in order to live. The princess is caged in the consulate. The man with the candy will lead the children into the sea. In this now legendary journey into the hinterland of the American psyche,...
    Paperback
    $2199
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Play It As It Lays
    A ruthless and unflinching examination of American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking. One thing in my defence, not that it matters: I know what β€˜nothing’ means, and keep on playing Somewhere out beyond Hollywood, hollowed-out actress Maria Wyeth’s life plays out in a numbing routine of perpetual freeway driving. In her...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • I Write to Find Out What I am Thinking
    The perfect book for all the new readers brought to Didion through her bestselling The Year of Magical Thinking. This hardcover omnibus edition of Didion's collected nonfiction contains her final four books: Blue Nights, South and West, Let Me Tell You What I Mean, and her bestselling and most famous work, The Year of Magical Thinking. In her essay Why...
    Hardback
    $4500
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Let Me Tell You What I Mean
    Twelve early pieces never before collected that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of Joan Didion. Mostly drawn from the earliest part of her astonishing five-decade career, the wide-ranging pieces in this collection include Didion writing about a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, a visit to San Simeon, and a reunion of WWII veterans in Las Vegas, and about...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Play It as It Lays
    A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Joan Didion's Play It as It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader. Set in a place beyond good and evilβ€”literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but...
    Paperback
    $3799
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • South and West
    From one of the most important chroniclers of our time, come two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks – writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer. South and West by Joan Didion presents a look into the notebooks in which she has always kept records of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, and drafts...
    Paperback
    $2299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Let Me Tell You What I Mean
    From one of our most iconic and influential writers: twelve pieces never before collected that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of this legendary figure. Mostly drawn from the earliest part of her astonishing five-decade career, Didion writes about a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, a visit to William Randolph Hearst's castle at San Simeon, a reunion of WWII...
    Hardback
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

More from Biography & Memoir

View all
  • This Angry Pen of Mine
    This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...
    Hardback
    $7299
    Elsewhere:
    $8999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Famesick
    Chronicling the tumultuous decade between the premiere of Girls to her 2021 shotgunΒ wedding (minus the baby, because she has no uterus), Lena Dunham takes us through herΒ journey with her trademark mix of humor, unsparing honesty, and keen eye for detail. We peek behind the scenes - of her work, her family, her relationships, and her battle to reclaim her body...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Dogs, Boys and Other Things I've Cried About
    From the social media superstar behind @SimonSits, Isabel Klee--known for her heartwarming tales of dog rescue--comes an utterly winning memoir about a twentysomething woman's search for true love in New York City and the dogs who helped her find it. A Jersey girl by birth, Isabel Klee had always wanted to live in New York City. At age 20, she...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Signed Copy
    New Release
    Stakes
    Read our interview with author Noelle McCarthy! A darkly funny, sparkling follow-up to the author’s bestselling memoirΒ Grand. You have to invite him in. You have to want the vampire’s badness in the house with you. Growing up in Catholic Ireland, Noelle McCarthy is captivated by Bram Stoker’sΒ Dracula. The vampire is a risk-free fantasy, a suave alternative to the fraught realities...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Built for This
    Raised among strong women, butcher's benches, and hard ideas about what men are meant to be, Brad Poulter grows up knowing he's different long before he has the words for it. But in late '90s small-town New Zealand, 'different' isn't discussed, it's managed. Joining the Royal New Zealand Navy offers escape, certainty, and belonging. The rules are clear, the uniform...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Even the Good Girls Will Cry
    Thanks to a thrown beer bottle and a fan letter to a P.O. box, Melissa Auf der Maur's first band scored an opening slot for the Smashing Pumpkins in her bohemian home town, Montreal. Sensing Melissa's talent, Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love. Whisked from her local scene, Melissa joined Hole just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    An Ocean and a Day
    An utterly riveting, moving and poignant memoir of grief and loss that will speak to anyone who's ever lost someone they love. An Ocean and a Day is Hannah Richell's personal account of losing her husband, Matt, in a surfing accident on Tamarama beach in 2014. It is the story of the grief journey she travelled over the first two...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    A Place to Stand
    A Place to Stand by Clare Ward is a profound memoir that delves into the life of a country doctor living and working in the Hokianga Harbour area in the far north of Aotearoa New Zealand. This region is sparsely populated and poses numerous health challenges. This thoughtful account details Clare’s thirty-year career, highlighting the people she works with and...
    Hardback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Rule of Lies
    Written with all the pace and energy of a John Grisham novel … An incredible true story and a great read! BILL BROWDER, author of Red Notice and Freezing Order An American lawyer’s brilliant, propulsive story of witnessing and playing a part in the transformation of Russia under Yeltsin and Putin. A true tale of fascinating personalities, criminal intrigue, harrowing...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    Backorder
    Ships late August
  • New Release
    Rory
    TheΒ New York TimesΒ bestseller The #1Β Irish TimesΒ bestseller The definitive biography of Rory McIlroy, the most important, popular and confounding player of the post-Tiger era. Rory McIlroy contains multitudes. The child of a working-class family from a small town in a war-torn homeland now commutes to work in his own private jet and counts billionaires as confidants. He can overwhelm a golf...
    Paperback
    $3699
    Elsewhere:
    $4199
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Te Kaikaukau | The Swimmer
    Novelist, memoirist and playwright Witi Ihimaera – author of Pounamu, Pounamu and The Whale Rider – decided, at the age of eighty, to dive back into the water and spend a year full-time at Te Wānanga Takiura, immersing himself in his own language, in te reo Māori. This book tells the story of this kaikaukau, this swimmer, and his year...
    Paperback
    $3500
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    This Is Me: A Reckoning
    This is a searingly honest and moving memoir from double Golden Globe-nominatedactress Hayden Panettiere. Hayden Panettiere has been in front of the camera since before she could talk. She roseto stardom typecasted as Hollywood's blonde girl next door. As a young celebrity,naysayers were certain she would crash and burn. Not one to disappoint, she did.Hayden Panettiere's irreverent memoir satisfies our...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.