Becky Manawatu - The Magic of Auē

Featherston Booktown is back!

Having been forced to postpone the Featherston Booktown Karukatea 2020 Festival in May, Featherston Booktown is returning with a roar, with a series of drawcard literary events dubbed Words in Winter from June through to August in Featherston.
The opening event will be “Aotearoa New Zealand, We Need to Talk” featuring three award-winning and provocative writers held over the weekend of 27- 28 June 2020.

Winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at this year’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, Becky Manawatu, will be in conversation with her publisher, Mary McCallum, of Makaro Press. They’ll be discussing Becky’s prize-winning book (her first book), Auē. A judge on the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction panel said: "there is something so assured and flawless in the delivery of the writing voice that is almost like acid on the skin."

Becky Manawatu published her first book, Auē, last year to immediate acclaim. Steve Braunias said: [It’s] “the best book of 2019 – and it really is immense, a deep and powerful work, maybe even the most successfully achieved portrayal of underclass New Zealand life since "Once Were Warriors".”

"This is a real punch-in-the-guts kind of novel but while it deals with themes of domestic violence, gang culture, grief and fractured families and, is at times, a heart-breaking read; it is also a beautifully pitched and nuanced hopeful story about the power of love, friendship and family … I think everybody should read Auē. It’s a book that people will still be talking about in decades to come. “— Kiran Dass, NZ Herald

What makes Auē so special? So magic?