Description - Kataraina by Becky Manawatu
The much-awaited follow-up to the award-winning international bestseller Aue.
In Aue, eight-year-old Arama was taken by his brother, Taukiri, to live with Kat and Stu at the farm in Kaikoura, 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 whanau 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 tipuna; 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.
'Words are powerful matter and Manawatu wields language like an axe against a stump ... her writing style is reminiscent of Melissa Lucashenko, Toni Morrison, and Keri Hulme ... I felt my tongue change while reading Kataraina, and the experience felt tapu (sacred) as the language tumbled down the back of my throat to the guts ... a generous, expansive, masterful novel.'
-Tara June Winch, The Guardian
'Kataraina is beautifully penned; interspersed with Maori 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.'
-Danielle Bagnato, The Big Issue
'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.'
-Jenna Todd, The Spinoff
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