The revealing sequel to the award-winning memoir Māori Boy. This is the second volume of memoir by this remarkable Māori writer and of the living myths that inspired him at the beginning of his career. Look at him, the young man on the cover.
The year is 1972, he is 28, his first book is about to be published, and he has every reason to kick up his heels. But behind that joyful smile, and the image of a writer footing it in the Pakeha world, there is another narrative, one that Witi has not told before.
The story of a native son, struggling to find a place, a voice and an identity, and to put a secret past to rest. This sequel to his award-winning memoir picks up where Māori Boy stopped, following Witi through his triumphs and failures at school and university, to experimenting sexually, searching for love and purpose and to becoming our first Māori novelist.
It continues in the same vein as the first volume, which was described by a reviewer as 'a rich, powerful, multi-layered and totally unique story . . . something every New Zealander should read'.
Witi Ihimaera Three-time winner of the Wattie/Montana Book of the Year award, Katherine Mansfield fellow and playwright Witi Ihimaera is one of New Zealand’s most prolific and accomplished writers. Witi’s first novel, Tangi, won the Wattie Book of the Year Award in 1974, a feat he repeated with The Matriarch in 1986. His celebrated novel Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies, now adapted as the film Mahana, won the Montana Book of the Year award in 1995. Witi’s other novels and short story collections include The Whale Rider (also adapted as an internationally successful film); Dream Swimmer (sequel to the award-winning The Matriarch); Pounamu, Pounamu and Nights In The Gardens of Spain. In 2015 he published the first volume of his autobiography, Māori Boy.
Paperback
Witi Ihimaera
448 pages
H: 233mm W: 154mm Spine: 36mm
Weight: 664 grams