AUE by Becky Manawatu

You thought Once Were Warriors was a harrowing and disturbing read, too close to the truth for many New Zealanders to read. Well, people, try this one for size. Recent winner of the NZ Ockham Book Awards, this is Becky Manawatu's first novel, and what a power house it is. Maori gang violence, Maori domestic abuse, Maori poverty - once again we are having this very dark side of NZ society shoved in our faces. There is a factual basis to this too, the author having family members who have suffered themselves, resulting in a novel of passion, anger, plenty of love, and above all hope.

This is the story of a family with two brothers at its centre - 8 year old Arama and late teens brother Taukiri, both tragically orphans following the recent deaths of their parents. In the first few pages, Taukiri has dropped off/abandoned Arama to the care of his aunt Kat and her abusive husband Stu who live on  a farm near Kaikoura. Taukiri, in his enormous grief and as the only survivor of the accident that killed their parents drives off, making his way to Wellington, to the underbelly life there. Arama is just a little boy, with all the innocence, wonder, imagination and beauty that young children have. This is a most uncertain and lonely life for him, so to find that next door lives a girl his own age - Beth - and a dog is the most marvellous thing to be happening to him. Beth is also living with trauma and grief, her mother having died, leaving her with her dad Tom. 

Arama's chapters are told alternately with those of Taukiri, surviving and living on his wits in Wellington, and the stories of their parents - Jade and Toko, Aroha and Jack.  So all pretty heart breaking and disturbing, but what a story teller this woman is. And how beautifully and sensitively she enters the hearts and souls of the two children desperately trying to make sense of the awful world they find themselves living in. We are also confronted with the terrible things drugs - P/meth - do to people, and how their best intentions at trying to live a healthy and good life are too often ripped away from under them. 

This is a book not to be read lightly, but to be thought about, and savoured. Because aside from the subject matter, from beginning to finish the writing is magnificent. Her descriptions of people, their emotions, navigating of relationships,  the drama of the east coast landscape and the farm where the children live, the escalating tensions, the grief for lives once full of promise and certainty. It is stunning, powerful, a real page turner, and a novel of contemporary New Zealand.