Kataraina
Overview
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 centre 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 famiily 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; 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.
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- RRP
- Pub date
- Rights held
- Other rights
- Paperback
- 234mm x 153mm
- 288 pages
- 9781761381454
- AUD$35.00
- 29 April 2025
- World (ex. NZ)
- High Spot Literary
Categories
Awards
- Longlisted for the 2025 New Zealand Book Awards for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
- Shortlisted for the 2025 Aotearoa Booksellers Choice Award
Praise
‘Kataraina is beautifully penned; interspersed with Māori language and Aotearoa/New Zealand colloquialisms … Manawatu writes to reclaim women's stories and to pay tribute to those who came before her. She tackles grief, domestic violence, intergenerational trauma, and colonisation with a sharp, compassionate eye.’
‘The narrative is confident and assured in its structure … Throughout the book, a third person perspective allows for a chorus of whānau, past and present, to tell their story … The natural environment cradles the narrative and our characters as Manawatu’s effortless figurative language is intertwined with the languages of science: lush ecology, resources and knowledge sits in the deep fabric of the environment.’
About the Author
Becky Manawatu (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Māmoe, Waitaha) is a West Coast author and journalist. She was born in Nelson and grew up in Waimangaroa, living now in Westport with her family. Her debut novel, Auē, won Aotearoa’s leading fiction prizes and became one of the country’s all-time fiction bestsellers.
