The Uncle's Story: A Novel

Front Cover
University of Hawaii Press, 2000 - Fiction - 373 pages

Michael Mahana's personal disclosure to his parents leads to the uncovering of another family secret-about his uncle, Sam, who had fought in the Vietnam War.

Now, armed with his uncle's diary, Michael goes searching for the truth about his uncle, about the secret the Mahana family has kept hidden for over thirty years, and what happened to Sam.

A powerful love story set in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam and in present-day New Zealand and North America, Witi Ihimaera's powerful new novel courageously confronts Maori attitudes to sexuality and masculinity and contains some of Ihimaera's most passionate writing to date.

From inside the book

Contents

Section 1
9
Section 2
21
Section 3
37
Copyright

20 other sections not shown

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2000)

Witi Ihimaera was born in Gisborne, New Zealand on February 7, 1944 into a Maori family of Mormons. After completing a B.A. in English, he worked as a journalist in New Zealand and started writing fiction. His first collection of short stories, Pounamu Pounamu, was published in 1972 and his first novel, Tangi, was published in 1973. His other works include Whanau, The Matriarch, The Whale Rider, The Dream Swimmer, Sky Dancer, The Trowenna Sea, and The Parihaka Woman. In 1982 he coedited an anthology of Maori writing, Into the World of Light, and continues to be a champion of literature in English by Maoris. In 2015 his title's Maori Boy: A Memoir and White Lies made The New Zealand Best Seller List and in 2016 it won the New Zealand Award general nonfiction award.

Bibliographic information