The The Reed Warbler
Will be published approx. on 21. May 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
624 pages
978-1-77656-300-5 (ISBN)
Description
A sweeping family saga of love, loss, and resilience in a new land.
Pregnant after rape, seventeen-year-old Josephina Hansen is exiled from her family home in Kiel, Germany. She seeks refuge with her sister's Danish family, then in Hamburg with a radical journalist and his sister. In 1880, political turmoil forces this family into exile--a new life in New Zealand's Kaitieke valley.
Carrying an ancient sewing sampler, Josephina maps her world, guided by the migrating reed warblers. Descendants Frank and Beth reunite, unearthing a hidden story that unlocks memory and meaning. The Reed Warbler weaves six generations, revealing the enduring power of family, identity, and the search for belonging.
Target Audience: Readers of historical fiction, family sagas, and stories about immigration.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Wellington
New Zealand
Publishing group
Te Herenga Waka University Press
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 208 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 53 mm
Weight
771 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77656-300-5 (9781776563005)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Ian Wedde is the author of eight novels, fifteen collections of poetry, two collections of essays, and a number of anthologies and art monographs. His most recent novel is The Reed Warbler (2020). His memoir, The Grass Catcher: A Digression About Home, was published in 2014, and his Selected Poems in 2017. Wedde is the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships, and grants. Among the most recent are the Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship at Menton in France (2005), a Fulbright New Zealand Travel Award to the USA (2006), an Arts Foundation Laureate Award (2006), a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Auckland (2007), an ONZM (2010), and the Landfall Essay Prize (2010). In 2011-13 Wedde was New Zealand's poet laureate. He was awarded the Creative New Zealand Writers' Residency in Berlin 2013-14, and in 2014 the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement (poetry). He lives and works in Auckland.