Into The River
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Margaret Mahy Award
"Some rivers should not be swum in. Some rivers hold secrets that can never be told."
Te Arepa is an adventurous Maori boy, bound to the history, customs and rituals of his people. Yet when he comes upon a giant eel while fishing, he is convinced the creature is a taniwha, or water demon, and follows it. Yet what Te Arepa finds in the river is far different, far more sinister. And it will change his life forever.
Te Arepa has always been curious about experiencing life beyond his tribe. His wishes seem granted when he is awarded a scholarship at a prestigious boarding school, far away from the Maori. Leaving behind his family and their traditions, Te Arepa sets out to discover a strange new world with customs of its own...as well as new enemies.
When he arrives at school, Te Arepa finds the freedom and everything it offers intoxicating. But to fit in, he realizes that he must shed his identity, culture, and even his name. And he comes to realize that what the water demon showed him in the darkness of the river that day changed him, and that freedom comes with a heavy price.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a book briefly banned in the author's native New Zealand, Dawe revisits a character from his novel Thunder Road, this time as an adolescent. Te Arepa is a 13-year-old from Whareiti, a Maori village. Te Arepa sees himself in his adventuring ancestor, Diego Santos, whose legend permeates the village. After being accepted to Barwell's Collegiate, a posh boarding school in Auckland, Te Arepa becomes Devon, disguising his name and Maori heritage to escape torment by senior boys. With friends Mitch and Steph, Devon experiences a world ripe with possibilities and the pressures of academic excellence. But his relationship with Steph brings its own set of problems in the form of stealing, drugs, and sex, including exploitation at the hands of a teacher. Dawe explores the inner sanctum of boarding schools and bullies in the morally confused Devon, who gravitates to choices that derail his life. While the descriptive scenes feel prolonged and the female characters are one-dimensional, Dawe's novel cleverly leaves the ending unresolved, emphasizing the complications of culture, loyalty, and consequences when "there is freedom and then there is everything else." Ages 13 up.
