Settlers' Creek

Book excerpt: A poignant and contentious novel by a rising star of New Zealand literature. Box Saxton just wants to bury his teenage stepson’s body in the churchyard near the farm where Box grew up. What happens, though, when the boy’s biological father, a Māori leader, unexpectedly turns up in the days before the funeral and forcibly takes the boy’s body? According to Māori custom the boy must be buried in the tribe’s ancestral cemetery at the small coastal town of Kaipuna. According to the law there is very little Box can do. With no plan and little hope, Box gets in his old truck and drives north, desperate and heartbroken. Settlers' Creek explores the claims of both indigenous people and more recent settlers to have a spiritual link to the land. 'Brave, bold and unflinching, Carl Nixon's Settler's Creek is one of the best novels to come out of New Zealand. It's not only a gripping, brutal, thriller but also a dissection of a country and its culture. It's the kind of book that gets you run out of town.' - Witi Ihimaera