Once Were Warriors - Softcover

Duff, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0908884001 ISBN 13: 9780908884001

Publisher: Tandem Press, 1990

Synopsis

Once Were Warriors is Alan Duff's harrowing vision of his country's indigenous people two hundred years after the English conquest. In prose that is both raw and compelling, it tells the story of Beth Heke, a Maori woman struggling to keep her family from falling apart, despite the squalor and violence of the housing projects in which they live. Conveying both the rich textures of Maori tradition and the wounds left by its absence, Once Were Warriors is a masterpiece of unblinking realism, irresistible energy, and great sorrow.

About this title

Review:

Duff (himself the son of a Maori mother and a white father) shows amazing facility with language in the intense, fast-paced, choppy internal monologues he gives his characters ... Duff shows courage in attacking the view that assimilation is the first step out of poverty, and he does so by spinning a compelling tale. (Kirkus Reviews)

Alan Duff's first novel bursts upon the literary landscape with all the noise and power of a new volcano. (Witi Ihimaera)

"A searing look at the urban subculture of New Zealand's native people." (Toronto Globe and Mail)

"A starkly realistic account...as important, as frank, as powerful a book as [Alice Walker's The Color Purple] was for Americans." (Dominion (New Zealand))

Book Description:

A confronting and gritty novel about displacement and heritage

About this edition

• Publisher: Tandem Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0908884001
• ISBN 13: 9780908884001
• Binding: Paperback