Potiki

Roimata Kararaina, her husband and their four children live peacefully in a tribal community along the unspoiled coast of New Zealand. But developers have big plans for the areatourist facilities, roads and modernizationand they offer Roimata's Maori people huge sums of money for its lands. When the community refuses to sell, fearing the destruction of its environment and sacred traditions, the developers employ sinister means to change its mind, and the Maori find themselves united as never before as they battle for survival. Grace's characters are beautifully sketched, and their struggles evoke sympathy. The New Zealand author tells a vivid and mesmerizing story as she blends tribal myth with political realities and offers shrewd insights into human nature. The unique book is also full of exotic symbolism and language, but one wishes that Grace had provided a glossary of the numerous Maori words.(October)