Rangatira

Auckland, June 1886. Over three long days Paratene Te Manu, an old chief of Ngāti Wai, sits for his portrait by the Bohemian painter Gottfried Lindauer. Hearing that Lindauer plans to travel to England, he remembers his own voyage there two decades before, with a group of northern rangatira who went to visit Queen Victoria. As the sittings go on, the old man drifts further back in memory: the party's triumphs in London and its meetings with royalty, and then the way the trip fell apart amid poverty, suspicion and shame. The novel draws on real events.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

New Zealand, United Kingdom, 1886

First published

2011

Author's age

46 when first published

ISBN

9780143565758 (Penguin, New Zealand)