Author(s): Alan Duff

NZ Fiction

The millennium has changed but have the Hekes? Where are they now, Beth, Jake, and what of their other children? Son Abe who has rejected violence but violence finds him. Polly, as beautiful as her sister Grace, who committed suicide; is that a Heke running with the wealthy polo-playing set and growing rich herself? And the gang leader, Apeman, who killed Tania, what's prison like, does it change a man, grow him or not? We meet another tragic female figure, Sharneeta. And Alistair Trambert, a middle-class white boy sunk into the same welfare dependency trap as the Maoris his class criticise. Meet Charlie Bennett, Beth's husband, a fine man, and yet . . . And yet there's Jake Heke, casting his long shadow over everyone. Has he really grown up?ABOUT THE AUTHORAlan Duff was born in Rotorua in 1950 and now lives in Havelock North with his wife and younger children. He has published five previous novels (ONCE WERE WARRIORS, ONE NIGHT OUT STEALING, WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKEN HEARTED?, BOTH SIDS OF THE MOON and SZABAD), a novella (STATE WARD) and three non-fiction works (MAORI: THE CRISIS AND THE CHALLENGE, OUT OF THE MISTS AND STEAM, and ALAN DUFF'S MAORI HEROES). ONCE WERE WARRIORS won the PEN Best First Book for Fiction Award and along with WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKEN HEART? was made into an internationally acclaimed film for which he wrote the original screenplay. He works as a full-time writer.