Sacrifice by Joanna Orwin

Sacrifice by Joanna Orwin. Pub. HarperCollins, 2011.

Aotea has been destroyed by volcanic eruptions and Tsunamis and life has returned to that which existed pre-European New Zealand.

Taka and his cousin Kai live with their  Ra Repo tribe in the swamp lands in the North an area they share with two other tribes.

Life is hard and food resources are scarce. The tribes are at crisis point. Every 5 years the tribes select 10 young men, known as Travelers,  to go south in search of food resources and to make contact with other survivors of the physical holocaust that has beset their land. No Travelers have ever returned.

The tribes are divided philosophically into those that believe in the  ways before “The Dark” came and those who believe in the old gods. But they come together to pursue a different direction because of pressures on their ways of living.

This year five of the Travelers will build a reed boat or Moki and travel North in search of food sources. Taka and Kai are both selected to go. What will they find? Will the gods be kind?

The sea voyage is terrific it is like a return to Hawai-iki.

An excellent new novel from Joanna Orwin who is a specialist in Pre European Maori custom and life styles as shown in her earlier novels. She has adapted these practices to reflect the technological experiences before the Dark and written a mystical adventure novel that is New Zealand through and through.

Will appeal to teenagers and even adults.