Author(s): Witi Ihimaera

NZ Fiction

'We had an elder brother,' Auntie Pat said. 'His name was Sam. ' Her voice softened. She handed me the package. 'This will explain everything.' Michael Mahana's personal disclosure to his parents leads to the uncovering of another family secret - about his uncle, Sam, who had fought in the Vietnam War. Now, armed with his uncle's diary, Michael goes searching for the truth about his uncle, about the secret the Mahana family has kept hidden for over thirty years, and what happened to Sam. Set in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam and in present-day New Zealand and North America, Witi Ihimaera's powerful new novel combines the superb story-telling of Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies with the unflinching realism of Nights in the Gardens of Spain. A powerful love story, it courageously confronts Maori attitudes to sexuality and masculinity and contains some of Ihimaera's most passionate writing to date.