Fishing for Maui

A novel about food whānau and mental illness. Valerie reads George Eliot to get to sleep - just to take her mind off worries over her patients her children their father and the next family dinner. Elena is so obsessed with health traditional food her pregnancy and her blog she doesnt notice that her partner Malcolm the ethicist is getting himself into a moral dilemma of his own making. Evie wants to save the world one chicken at a time. Meanwhile her boyfriend Michael is on a quest to reconnect with his Māori heritage and discover his own identity. Rosa is eight years old and lost in her own fantasy world but shes the only one who can tell somethings not right. An accomplished story of a family in crisis - Ritchies great skill is her ability to conjure the inner lives of her characters. Fishing for Māui is a compassionate meditation on what it means to be well. - Sarah Jane Barnett