Bronwyn Calder recommends Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings by Tina Makereti - Vintage Random House, 2014
Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings was Tina Makareti's first novel. It was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and won the 2014 Ngā Kupu Ora Aotearoa Maori Book Award for fiction. Makereti has a PhD Creative Writing from Victoria University, and in 2014 she convened the first Māori & Pasifika Writing Workshop at the International Institute of Modern Letters, where she now convenes one of the Masters workshops.
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Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings has been described as ‘a remarkable [book that] spans generations of Moriori, Māori and Pākehā descendants as they grapple with a legacy of pacifism, violent domination and cross-cultural dilemmas.’
The novel tells the story of Mere and her family's servant, Iraia, and of their descendants, twins Lula and Bigs, and the tragedy that joins them and the eventual redemption of a whole people. It explains how history, no matter how carefully concealed, has a way of leaking out and taking over until those left have to deal with it or have it consume them.
Immensely poignant in its story of the apparent extinction of the Moriori people and hopeful as a people and a culture revive.
A great read and truly moving.
Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings is available in paperback from local bookshops or as an ebook on Amazon.
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