Awards

• Long-listed for New Zealand Book Awards for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction 2025 (New Zealand)
• Short-listed for Aotearoa Booksellers Choice Award 2025 (New Zealand)

Overview

The much-awaited follow-up to the award-winning international bestseller Auē. In Auē, eight-year-old Ārama was taken by his brother, Taukiri, to live with Kat and Stu at the farm in Kaikōura, 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 whānau 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 tīpuna; 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.

Full Product Details

9781917189194

Table of Contents

Reviews

‘The narrative is confident and assured in its structure … Throughout the book, a third person perspective allows for a chorus of whānau, past and present, to tell their story … 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 * ‘Kataraina is a refined and evocative novel written with such hospitable, attentive delicacy, steeped in the natural world … Manawatu’s writing is as intensely beautiful as it is diamond hard.’ -- Kiran Dass * The Spinoff * ‘The dialogue is outstanding. You can hear these people walking around the pages, too … There are numerous times when Manawatu ramps up the volume and intensity of her prose, electrifies it. Kataraina is the work of a major writer who could have stuck with a single storyline to create a major novel but had other things on her Mind.’ -- Steve Braunias * Newsroom * Kataraina is less plot-driven than Auē, but has more structural and narrative depth. The two books are intrinsically intertwined in a way that strengthens them both … Kataraina gets under the hood of the culture of domestic violence, and lays it bare. This is all achieved with an ethereal vibe that seems like it ought to be incongruous with what Kat endures, but still works very well.’ -- Lauren Keenan * Newsroom * ‘Manawatu’s second novel solidifies her powerful voice and astute observational prowess.’ * Denizen * ‘It's billed as a sequel, but it’s not a straightforward continuation of the narrative. Rather, the action moves across both time and space – to moments before, during and after the events of its predecessor … Kataraina is a rewarding novel that I feel will continue to reveal itself. It also ends with laughter – a ‘cool-water laughter’ – which feels like a well-deserved ending to a saga wrought with so much tragedy.’ -- Jordan Tricklebank * Māori Literature Blog * ‘Kataraina is breathtaking, swirling around a repeating incident, given form by the collective memories of members of the Te Au family … Kataraina is extremely tense in places, with its constant threat of violence, but it is also full of the love and support people, and the land, can extend … The novel has a chaotic structure that is easily navigable, with its strong recurring themes.’ * Alysontheblog *

‘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 * ‘The narrative is confident and assured in its structure … Throughout the book, a third person perspective allows for a chorus of whānau, past and present, to tell their story … 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 * ‘Kataraina is a refined and evocative novel written with such hospitable, attentive delicacy, steeped in the natural world … Manawatu’s writing is as intensely beautiful as it is diamond hard.’ -- Kiran Dass * The Spinoff * ‘The dialogue is outstanding. You can hear these people walking around the pages, too … There are numerous times when Manawatu ramps up the volume and intensity of her prose, electrifies it. Kataraina is the work of a major writer who could have stuck with a single storyline to create a major novel but had other things on her Mind.’ -- Steve Braunias * Newsroom * Kataraina is less plot-driven than Auē, but has more structural and narrative depth. The two books are intrinsically intertwined in a way that strengthens them both … Kataraina gets under the hood of the culture of domestic violence, and lays it bare. This is all achieved with an ethereal vibe that seems like it ought to be incongruous with what Kat endures, but still works very well.’ -- Lauren Keenan * Newsroom * ‘Emotions are vivid, borne out of desperation. The novel’s setting is perfectly detailed with normal instances of family life … At times magical realism and myth actively participate; at other times they recede, waves of history and storytelling altering each other … [A] deeply affecting, multi-layered generational tale of trauma and recovery, and a strength that lives on to set grievances right.’ -- Jessie Neilson * Otago Daily Times * ‘Written in a very different style, very descriptive and poetic, it was a joy revisiting these characters. If you loved Auē then I wholeheartedly recommend reading it again just before reading this. Important connections will be easily revealed.’ -- Neale Lucas * Good Reading * ‘Manawatu’s second novel solidifies her powerful voice and astute observational prowess.’ * Denizen * ‘It's billed as a sequel, but it’s not a straightforward continuation of the narrative. Rather, the action moves across both time and space – to moments before, during and after the events of its predecessor … Kataraina is a rewarding novel that I feel will continue to reveal itself. It also ends with laughter – a ‘cool-water laughter’ – which feels like a well-deserved ending to a saga wrought with so much tragedy.’ -- Jordan Tricklebank * Māori Literature Blog * ‘Kataraina is breathtaking, swirling around a repeating incident, given form by the collective memories of members of the Te Au family … Kataraina is extremely tense in places, with its constant threat of violence, but it is also full of the love and support people, and the land, can extend … The novel has a chaotic structure that is easily navigable, with its strong recurring themes.’ * Alysontheblog *

Author Information

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.

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