Wake

One sunny spring morning the Tasman Bay settlement of Kahukura is overwhelmed by a mysterious mass insanity. A handful of survivors find themselves cut off from the world, and surrounded by the dead. As they try to take care of one another, and survive in ever more difficult circumstances, it becomes apparent that this isn't the first time that this has happened, and that they aren't all survivors and victims—two of them are something quite other. And, it seems, they are trapped with something. Something unseen is picking at the loose threads of their characters, corrupting, provoking, and haunting them. Wake is a novel about what it really means to try to do one's best, about the choices and sacrifices people face in order to keep a promise like "I will take care of you." It is a novel that asks: What are the last things left when the worst has happened? and about extreme events, ordinary people, heroic compassion—and invisible monsters. An invisible monster is what one can't see coming; with an invisible monster one never knows when they're in danger and when they're safe—if they retreat to their fortress they can't be sure they haven't locked it in with them.

About the Author

Elizabeth Knox is one of New Zealand’s leading writers. She is the author of eight previous novels, including the award-winning novel The Vintner’s Luck and its sequel The Angel’s Cut; a trilogy of autobiographical essays, The High Jump; a collection of personal essays, The Love School; and the young adult novel, Dreamquake, which won an American Library Association Michael L. Printz Honor Award for Young Adult Literature. She was made an Arts Foundation Laureate in 2000 and an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002.

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