"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

"An unstoppable life force dominates Kataraina: both the person and the novel."
--Catherine Taylor, The Guardian

"Kataraina is beautifully penned; interspersed with Māori language and Aotearoa/New Zealand colloquialisms ... Manawatu writes to reclaim women's stories and to pay tribute to those who came before her. She tackles grief, domestic violence, intergenerational trauma, and colonisation with a sharp, compassionate eye."
--Danielle Bagnato, The Big Issue

"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 dialog 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

"Kataraina is beautifully written. The complexity of the structure and the chronology is belied by the clarity of the writing ... Kataraina also excels in describing the beauty of the Kaikoura landscape and wetlands. And, beyond portraying the scenes and sounds of everyday life, Kataraina also manages to convey the inner life of its characters especially Kataraina, herself. The combination of these traits makes reading Kataraina a joyful experience."
--Stephen Keim, Hearsay

"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

"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 immerses her readers in a world that, to me, feels like nothing else ... its [her] economically lyrical prose that grips."

-- Claire Allfree, Daily Mail

"Manawatu's remarkable narrative puzzles together Kataraina's fractured life via nonlinear chapters ... A sprawling, polyphonic experience ... Manawatu inventively manipulates time, place, and history, hinting at fabulism."
--Terry Hong, Shelf Awareness

Praise for Auē:

"Auē' is the Maori word for a howling cry, and this layered work weaves a striking tapestry of fierce love and unflinching violence worthy of its poetic title ... Manawatu excels at enriching her characters and story lines with heartbreaking detail ... [A] devastating, beautifully written tale imbued with Maori culture and language."
--Gregory Brown, The New York Times

"The word auē is a Maori verb to cry, howl, groan, wail, bawl and yes, yes, yes, yes and yes, you may do all of these things when reading Becky Manawatu's incredibly assured debut novel. Small word, big emotions--and the perfect title for a book that deals in deceptively simple narration and oceanic feeling ... Manawatu elicits compassion from ugly places, and threads through redemptive spiritual beauty, and innocence, too, via alternating voices."
--Lucy Clark, The Guardian

"Much has been made of the violence in this novel ... [but in] so many ways, Auē is quite different ... more hopeful and tender ... In bringing to the page characters who maim, but also characters who love fiercely, Manawatu has had to enter the aching heart of this story and bring her characters back from dark places. Auē has done well because it is expertly crafted, but also because it has something indefinable: enthralling, puzzling, gripping and familiar, yet otherworldly."
--Tina Makereti, The Guardian

"[Manawatu's] prose is as changeable as the ocean: fluid most of the time, choppy and fragmented during intense moments. Each narrator contributes a unique perspective, their voices weaving together to form a coherent, devastating tale ... Auē is a novel about how trauma can spread from one generation to the next, and how it is never too late for second chances."
--Eileen Gonzalez, Foreword Reviews

"There is something so assured and flawless in the delivery of the writing voice that is almost like acid on the skin."
--Tara June Winch, author of The Yield, and co-judge of the 2020 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction

"Auē is a heartbreaking yet gripping drama ... Despite the misery faced by its characters, the book maintains a sense of hope ... [Auē] stands out for its stark yet careful approach to depicting confronting and uncomfortable subjects. It's reminiscent of Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain and Romy Ash's Floundering in its exploration of tragedy through the innocent eyes of a child."
--Books+Publishing

"[Auē's] strengths emerge partly through an unwillingness to flinch at bleakness, partly through the depth of emotion, and ultimately the resilience it also portrays."
--The Sydney Morning Herald

"Auē means to cry or wail, which is at the heart of this novel. It gnaws away at you, it consumes you; you can't stop thinking about it, trying to understand it, trying to find hope ... a fitting title for this book as there is an underlying sense of sorrow that binds the generations together. It details intergenerational trauma and shares a journey on how this trauma can impact future generations and leave unseen scars breaking the essence and spirit of a person. Manawatu weaves the sorrowful call throughout the book, but there are just enough pockets of hope to allow the reader to imagine a better future for all the characters."
--Wiki Mulholland, Emirates Literature Foundation

"It's about the intergenerational nature of this violence, how ruinous lack of tenderness breeds further ruin. The violence is strongly gendered, the men incapable of expressing themselves except through fists ... If lack of tenderness is the cause of all this suffering, aroha, love, is the answer. Throughout Auē love comes to the rescue, even if it is often thwarted. Culture and belonging are key to this love ... The writing is cinematic, the dialog heightened, the action coming in staccato bursts."
--James Whitmore, The Library is Open

"Auē is a vivid and profound work."
--Jessica Oliver, Canberra Times

"Read this book if you love great fiction and want to discover a powerful new voice from New Zealand."
--Emily Paull, The AU Review

Publisher: Scribe Us

Pub date: 2025-09-16

Length: 288 pages