WHEN THE PAST CATCHES UP
Caroline Barron & Anne Tiernan
Caroline Barron‘s Golden Days and Anne Tiernan‘s The Last Days of Joy are both gripping novels that explore how the past can haunt us in the present. Chaired by Paula Morris.
We meet Barron‘s protagonist Becky when she is mourning the end of her picture-perfect marriage. As she unravels, Becky also remembers one terrifying night in 1995 that changed her life forever. When Zoe, her best friend at the time, reappears in her life, she is forced to reconsider her interpretation of what happened.
In her bestselling debut novel, Tiernan‘s story is told by three adult siblings, including Sinead, a bestselling author struggling to write her second book. Like her brother Conor and her sister Frances, Sinead carries the scars of their mother’s alcoholism, which we learn is her response to a tragedy in their early childhood, a time they all remember differently.
Both stories are book club-worthy page turners that raise questions about alcohol use, family, friendship and the human capacity for self-deception. When secrets surface, each character does what they can to survive but inevitably they must each reckon with the truth.
All pukapuka will be for sale through our Festival bookstore Paper Plus Nelson, both at their shop and at their stall at Pukapuka Talks sessions – your opportunity to meet authors and get your books signed! You can also purchase books from Paper Plus online.
Thanks to: University of Auckland Masters of Creative Writing Alumni Fund
Caroline Barron (Te Uri O Hau / Pākehā)
Caroline Barron (Te Uri O Hau / Pākehā) is an award-winning author, story coach, presenter and manuscript assessor, as well as a journalist and former model agency owner. Golden Days (Affirm Press, Feb 2023), is her debut novel. Her memoir, Ripiro Beach (Bateman, 2020), won the 2020 New Zealand Heritage Literary Award for Best Non-fiction Book.
Anne Tiernan
Anne Tiernan was born in Zambia and grew up in Navan, Ireland, before moving to Tauranga in 2005 with her Kiwi husband, where she now lives, raising three children.
Paula Morris (Chair)
Paula Morris MNZM (Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Manuhiri) is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, essayist and editor from New Zealand. She holds degrees from universities in New Zealand, the U.K. and the US, including a D.Phil from the University of York and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the founder of the Academy of New Zealand Literature and Wharerangi, the Māori literature hub, director of the Master in Creative Writing programme at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Pukapuka Talks are presented by:
SUTER THEATRE
Fri 20 Oct | 3pm | 60 min
Pay What You Can (PWYC)
All Ages
Content warnings apply: Drug references, Rape / Sexual Assault themes