Kataraina

“[A] devastating, beautifully written tale imbued with Maori culture and language.”
—Gregory Brown, The New York Times for Auē

The much-awaited follow-up to the award-winning international bestseller Auē.

In Auē, eight-year-old Ārama was taken by his brother, Taukiri, to live with Kat and Stu at the farm in Kaikōura, setting in motion the ensuing tragedy, which resulted in Stu’s death. Aunty Kat was at the center of events, but, silenced by abuse, her voice was absent from the story.

In Kataraina, Kat and her whānau take over the telling. As one, the family recounts her childhood and the time when she first began to feel the greenness of the swamp in her veins—the swamp that holds her tears and the tears of generations of tīpuna that came before her; the swamp on the land owned by Stu that has been growing since the day he was killed.

Unflinching in its portrayal of intergenerational trauma and violence, tender in its harnessing of the hope that future generations represent, Kataraina is a stunning novel that confirms Becky Manawatu as one of the most talented and powerful writers working in Aotearoa/New Zealand today.