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Cristina Sanders and Lauren Keenan are two of Aotearoa New Zealand’s preeminent historical fiction writers. Journey back in time with them to experience life through the eyes of those who history books have, to date, largely neglected. Chaired by Sylvan Thomson.Set in New Plymouth on the brink of the First Taranaki War, Lauren Keenan’s novel is told through the eyes of two women: English-born and raised Frances Farrington, who is forging a new life in the colony, and wāhine Māori Matāria White, who has been cast out by her whānau. As English settlers wage war upon the local iwi, the two women must confront their pasts to survive the present.
Set on the eastern shores of Port Nicholson in the 1840s, Cristina Sanders’ latest book returns to the early days of New Zealand colonial settlement, when a whaler washes up on the beach. Calling himself Ōkiwi Brown, he sets up a pub with a nasty reputation and finds himself a woman who had been abandoned on his beach. Nearby, children sing dark nursery rhymes of murder. One afternoon Ōkiwi is visited by a pair of ex-soldiers, a bo’sun looking for a fight, and itinerant worker William Leckie with his young daughter Mary. When a body is discovered on the beach, it could be that a drunken man has drowned. But it could be that the gathered witnesses know something more.
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Nelson Arts Festival
24 Oct – 3 Nov 2024
nelsonartsfestival.nz
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Motueka Public Library, 12 Pah Street,Port Motueka, New Zealand, Nelson
Tickets
