Hoods Landing – Laura Vincent

READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS

In the rural reaches of Auckland, the women of the eclectic Gordon family gather for Christmas. Rita, the 50-year-old baby of the family, is planning to tell them she has cancer. Drifting between past and present, she considers the lives of women in their community and reckons with what it all means for her future and her family.

RACHEL:
● Hood’s Landing centres on Rita Gordon and her sprawling family over a celebration near Christmas for their matriarch’s birthday. Rita plans to reveal her cancer diagnosis but keeps delaying while the day’s events, arguments and memories get in the way. The whanau discuss the present and remember other influential women in their family and community, many of whom have also had cancer. It can be a bit sad reading about many deaths, but the large family and their ongoing love/gossip/bickering/laughter adds much life. Reading the book felt like sitting in a lazy boy in the corner of the room watching the conversations take place and observing the reactions at surprise events.

There is a strong focus on females as the support networks of families with male characters relegated to the periphery. Whakapapa, belonging, Māori identity, spirituality and inherited grief influence the group’s discourse.

This is Laura Vincent’s (Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi) debut, which makes me look forward to anything else she might write.

Published 2025
Āporo Press
256 pages