A New Zealand classic, this novel is a raw and powerful portrayal of Maori in New Zealand society. Alan Duff's groundbreaking first novel is one of the most talked-about books ever published in New Zealand and is the basis of a major New Zealand film. This hard hitting story is a frank and uncompromising portrait in which everyone is a victim, until the strength and vision of one woman transcends brutality and leads the way to a new life. 'Alan Duff's first novel bursts upon our literary l...

Here for the first time is this controversial writer's real childhood and early adulthood. The mixed feelings of an intelligent, sensitive child – talented but tormented; the eventual separation from his family; violence, crime, borstal and finally prison in England. How he turned his life around to become, not only New Zealand's bestselling novelist, but also a spokesperson for a large number of underprivileged New Zealanders, a controversial columnist and the initiator of the brilliantly...

The prize-winning, passionate and uncompromising sequel to the blistering classic novel, Once Were Warriors 'She always came the following day for a second visit on this yearly remembering; in fact, Polly Heke came several times a year and had done for the last two, from when she herself hit the same age as Grace’d been when she, uh, when she killed herself.' The searing power of Alan Duff’s masterpiece Once Were Warriors rocked a nation and was...

I'm 13 and I'm in a cell. A cell. It's got real bars, up there protecting that high window. I can jump up and touch them. I'm in a cell. That door is for real; it's made of solid steel, and it's got a peephole. So they can spy on me. But I ain't gonna bust. I damn well ain't. Charlie Wilson, the 'state house boy' from Two Lakes, is sent to Riverton Boys' Home as a state ward until such time as he is seen fit to return to society. The door in the cellblock isn't the only thing that Charlie ...

When Johno comes out of prison, he resolves never to go back again. But his new life is not easy, especially as he soon finds himself in sole charge of his strange young son, Danny. Danny isn't the kind of son he would have chosen, but, in caring for the boy, Johno finds new meaning and new direction. But what do you do when the world you've so carefully built comes crashing down? Can you ever escape your past? This is a return to the world of criminals and violence that Alan Duff has writ...

A fresh, personal account of New Zealand, now, from one of our hardest-hitting writers**.** Following Once Were Warriors, Alan Duff wrote Maori: The Crisis and the Challenge. His controversial comments shook the country. A quarter of a century later, New Zealand and Maoridom are in a very different place. And so is Alan – he has published many more books, had two films made of his works, founded the Duffy Books in Homes literacy programme and endured ‘som...

The millennium has changed, but can the Heke family and the people of Pine Block? Abe, son of Beth and Jake, has rejected violence, but violence always seems to find him. Polly, as beautiful as her sister Grace, who committed suicide, is running around with the wealthy polo-playing set and growing rich herself. Gang leader, Apeman, who killed Tania, is in prison – will it help him to grow, or not? In Pine Block, Sharneeta casts a tragic figure across the neighbourhood. Alistair Trambert, a...

The second gripping, powerful novel by the author of Once Were Warriors. Boys’ homes, borstal, jail, stealing, then jail again – and again. That’s been life for Jube and Sonny. One Pakeha, the other Maori, only vaguely aware of life beyond pubs and their hopeless cronies . . . Reviewers found it compulsive and unforgettable, one saying: 'Brutal, foul-mouthed, violent, despairing and real . . . it can't be ignored'. In this novel Alan Duff confirms his skills as a ...

A gripping novel set in 1950s Hungary about a fight for freedom and a fight for love. 'She screams one word: Szabad! Free. Again: Szabad!' It is the 1950s. The Soviets and the Secret Police have a choking grip on Hungary and the lives of its citizens. Attila Szabo is one of them, just a teenager, but he's been forced to grow up quickly, with his father in prison. In the top-floor flat, a new couple has just moved in, clearly different in class, so why hav...

A gritty novel of envy and relationships gone awry, by best best-selling writer Alan Duff. This moving, fast-paced story is set in two contrasting worlds: the rich, horse-breeding milieu of Riley Chadwick and his family, and the hand-to-mouth life on the street of Lu and her mates. What happens when those worlds collide? Riley's daughter, Anna, seems to have everything: looks, money, confidence. Lu has nothing except her friends and the sense of inferiority and rage she fe...

A compelling novel with an unexpected revelation that throws a powerful punch. Yank is an ordinary enough teenager, except that he lives in a thermal wonderland (frequented by tourists eager to view the geysers and boiling mud) and except for the fact that one of those tourists (an American soldier visiting during the Second World War) was his father. The locals gave the boy the nickname of Yank, a name that makes him different and ensures his mother’s husband will never ...

A moving, powerful novel about facing your crimes, about freedom and about redemption, from the renowned author of Once Were Warriors. 'I'm thirteen and I'm in a cell. A cell. It's got real bars, up there protecting that high window. I can jump up and touch them. I'm in a cell. That door is for real; it's made of solid steel, and it's got a peephole. So they can spy on me. But I ain't gonna bust. I damn well ain't.' Charlie Wilson, the 'state house boy' f...