Kataraina

The much-awaited follow-up to the award-winning international bestseller Aü.

In Aü, eight-year-old ¿rama was taken by his brother, Taukiri, to live with Kat and Stu at the farm in Kaik¿ura, 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 wh¿nau take over the telling. As one, the family 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 t¿puna; the swamp on the land owned by Stu that has been growing since the day the girl shot the man.

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.

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.

Product details

• Authors: Becky Manawatu
• Publisher: Faber Factory Plus GBS
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 14.08.2025
• EAN: 9781917189194
• ISBN: 978-1-917189-19-4
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Fiction > Narrative literature > Contemporary literature (from 1945); Sagas, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), FICTION / Family Life / General, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Psychological, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Narrative theme: Identity / belonging, New Zealand, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, FICTION / World Literature / New Zealand, Relating to Maori people, Saga fiction (family / generational sagas), Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, New Zealand / Aotearoa, FICTION / Indigenous / City Life