A heartening tale about ordinary people thriving under extraordinary circumstances.
Local lore tells the tale of an unfaithful wife, Wairaka, who paid for her infidelities by being cast into rock. Six centuries have passed and the stone lookout at Wairaka Point still stands, watching over Nick James and his family home. It is sometime in the early 1960s when Nick unearths a mystery, human remains buried in years of mud. But Nick is on the cusp of adulthood and the world beyond his New Zealand home holds nothing but opportunities. With the skeleton all but forgotten, Nick goes on to make a name for himself, succeeding in business while enjoying a well-traveled life. These same decades offer similarly promising prospects for Stella Rees, a young woman growing up in Rhodesia during a period of political upheaval. Though her childhood of affluence feels comfortable and secure, her privileged life sustains some major setbacks. But Stella is resilient, motivated, and tenacious. Whether in business or in love, she attaches herself to an objective until it is realized. So when she and Nick meet at a Ghanaian hotel bar in 1979, Stella refuses to ignore their compatibility. She may be a woman used to achieving her goals, but destiny isn’t so easily controlled. And even if it could be, buried secrets have a way of shattering even the most carefully crafted lives.
A fact-driven fusion of geopolitical tension, cultural convergence, and the lengths we go for love, Wairaka Point: The Paradox of Truth is a globetrotting adventure through verifiable history. With a feature typically reserved for fantasy novels and travel guides, the book opens with maps as they existed years ago. The cartography reminds readers that the fictionalized account is rooted in the tumult that shaped nations for the last half-century. As Stella and Nick navigate these changes and diverse settings, their heritage comes to the fore and influences their decisions. These fully fleshed-out characters enjoy a relationship that feels electric, as though you’re invited directly into their private thoughts. From Australasia to locations across the African continent, the story spans an exciting range of cultures and settings, often necessitating explaining local terms, events, and customs. Rather than incorporate these details into the prose, the author uses an abundance of footnotes, a risky strategy that enlightens readers but can also interrupt the narrative flow. Decades in the making and a refreshing departure from the norm, Wairaka Point is a heartening tale about ordinary people thriving under extraordinary circumstances.
