Author(s): Joanna Orwin

NZ Fiction

Collision - the violent impact of opposing forces; the clash of two different world views and cultures. In 1772 a disastrous collision in the Southern Ocean saw French expedition leader, Monsieur Marc Joseph Marion du Fresne, bring the tall ships Marquis de Castries and Mascarin into the Bay of Islands, northern New Zealand, seeking fresh water and new spars. Through the eyes of Andre Tallec, a young ensign, and his counterpart, Te Kape, favoured protégée of local chief Te Kuri, the events of the next two months unfold with harrowing tension and a sense of impending doom. Blinded by the apparent goodwill of the Naturals and his belief in French superiority , Marion misunderstands their interactions with local Maori. Each day, the French unwittingly transgress further. With gathering frustration, the local chiefs find their mana increasingly compromised and their spiritual wellbeing threatened. Te Kuri and his fellow chiefs try every means at their disposal to encourage these strange tipua from the sea to leave them in peace, until only one course of honourable action remains. In a superb retelling of a collision of cultures doomed to end in tragedy, Joanna Orwin cleverly interweaves Maori and European perspectives, providing a vivid and compelling tale of loyalty, friendship, bloodshed and revenge from the age of encounter - when European and Polynesian first measured each other face to face. Award-winning writer Joanna Orwin makes a seamless transition in this her first adult novel, showing the same skill and style that has led to her success in both Junior and YA fiction. Joanna lives and works in Christchurch.