Author(s): Jade Kake

Novel | Aotearoa Fiction | Maori

Checkerboard Hill is a story of belonging, dislocation, misunderstandings, identity and fractured relationships.
When a family member dies in Australia, Ria flies from New Zealand and returns to the family and home in Australia she suddenly left decades before as a teenager. Waiting for her return are her husband and son in New Zealand. Neither family has met the other, and Ria has always kept her Maori, Australian, New Zealand identities and lives separate. But the family tensions, unfinished arguments, connections to places and meeting of former friends, lead Ria to revisit her memories and reflect on the social and cultural tensions and racism she experienced, and the decisions she made. The novel confronts the complexities of families, secrets and trauma and the way these play out across generations. It also explores the ways in which Maori cultural traditions and tikanga are transmuted and transformed across the Tasman, across time and space.

Author Biography: Deborah Robertson is a secondary school teacher, and she completed the Master of Creative Writing at the University of Auckland with first class honours. In 2014, she won the inaugural Teach First NZ essay competition, and she has had short works published by Radio New Zealand and Teach First NZ. Deborah is a scout leader and enjoys trail running and tramping and has hiked extensively in the region where Before George is set. She grew up in a semi-off-grid environment, and rode horses, cooked on a wood stove and grew food.