Lauren Keenan - The Space Between

Lauren Keenan in conversation with Emma Tucker at the 2024 Marlborough Book Festival Lauren’s gripping historical novel set amid the New Zealand Wars in 1860 was an instant bestseller. Drawing on her study of Taranaki history, Lauren has told the story of two fictional women: English-raised Frances Farrington whose spiteful brother ensures their once well regarded family is out of step with settler society and Māori wahine Matāria White, a returned slave who married an Englishman and struggles for acceptance within her whānau. Both Frances and Matāria do not belong solely to either settler society or the Māori world and their paths cross just as conflict flares between the two peoples. Lauren talks to Emma Tucker (Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne, Te Atiawa, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Rārua, and Ngāti Apa ki Te Rā Tō) about the multiple gifts this novel presents to readers - a compelling story, a history lesson that many of us did not receive at school, and a timely reminder that empathy and connection offer hope for the future.