Tuesday, May 07, 2013

A Place to Stand


1950s Kawerau is brought to life in New Zealand author, Helen McNeil’s latest novel, A Place to Stand. Focused on Sandra McLeod and her English immigrant family to the small town, it details both the slow breakdown of a family as well as  wider changes in the town itself.

“I'll never go back,” she said. “Never.”

Sandra McLeod arrived as a child in Kawerau, New Zealand, with her British family. It was 1954. But the family's hopes for a new and better life faltered in this raw timber town. At sixteen Sandra fled. All she took with her were numbness and denial. Fifteen years later, a letter arrives and Sandra, now a successful real estate agent, knows she must go back. Back to her mother's vacant eyes and the secrets of the McLeod family. Back to unpick her past and to learn about loss, grief, mothering – and perhaps a chance of finding home. 

Set in a small town on the volcanic plateau of New Zealand, this poignant novel explores the cost of migration and what it means to find deep connection with place.


Available now from Amazon(ebook) and PublishMe (ebook and paperback).
 RRP $25.00 (or $7.99 ebook)

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