From the author of Toward the Sea of Freedom comes a novel of the
triumphs, tragedies, and courage of two women bravely changing the tide
of history...
As the nineteenth century draws to a close, the struggle for women's
suffrage has finally reached New Zealand. But when the tide of change
rolls in, it threatens to engulf two young women from very different
backgrounds, who are coming of age amid the tumult.
Torn between the two worlds that make up her heritage, Matariki Drury is
the daughter of a successful white businesswoman and a descendant of
Maori royalty. Scarred by poverty and hoping to make a new life for
herself in this strange and forbidding land, Violet Paisley is the
middle child of a poor Welsh coal-mining family.
Drawn together by their shared commitment to social change, and tested
by traumas that neither of them could foresee, these two
independent-minded women will find themselves thrust onto the front
lines of the fight for equal rights and racial justice. To win their
place in this world, they must learn to rise above their personal pain
and choose a path of reconciliation rather than retribution.