He Heru. a Comb - (Objects Talk Back) by Whiti Hereaka (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Drawing inspiration from a seemingly simple comb, or heru, this new text by Whiti Heraka comes in nine sections, "a part for each tooth, and a part for each space between them." The parts tell stories of love, loss, and longing: tales of whales whose bones were used to make objects, of a carver creating a comb, of Maori gods and the power of women, of colonial whalers fishing their prey almost to extinction in the South Pacific, of a writer who cuts her hair and moves across worlds, weaving connections. Hereaka unfurls a stunning cosmology around the heru, combing with it through time and space to make "stories of ocean blue, blood red, bone white."

About the Author

Whiti Hereaka is a novelist and playwright of Maori and Pakeha descent. Her iwi affiliations are Ngati Tuwharetoa, Te Arawa, Ngati Whakaue, Tuhourangi, Ngati Tumatawera, and Tainui. She is the author of four novels: The Graphologist's Apprentice, Bugs, Legacy, and Kurangaituku. Legacy won the New Zealand Children's and Young Adult Book Award for YA fiction in 2019, and Kurangaituku was awarded the 2022 Jann Medlicott Acorn Award for fiction in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2023.