Broken October: New Zealand, 1985

by Craig Harrison

A 20th century Maori Land War fought with all the weaponry and psychological techniques so grimly familiar to the 1970s.

291 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1976

About the author

Craig Harrison is a fiction writer, playwright, and teacher. He has written several novels, short stories, plays, satirical works, and television comedies. His well known science fiction novel, The Quiet Earth, was published in 1981. Harrison has also written junior fiction, including The Dumpster Saga, published by Scholastic in 2007. His awards and prizes include the Elmwood Jubilee Prize, the J.C. Reid Award, and the NZ Theatre Federation prize. He came to New Zealand in 1966 to lecture in English at Massey University, where he remained until he retired.

Reviews

[D.A. Crossman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great pity it is that some terrific Kiwi novels that pre-date the digital age have been seemingly forgotten. Craig Harrison takes CK Stead’s vision in Smith’s Dream considerably further on down the track in this tense, page turning thriller.

Broken October gives us a portrait of a New Zealand in the 1980’s torn apart by civil war and a total breakdown in what was once euphemistically dubbed “race relations.” With the nation in economic turmoil and a constitutional crisis looming, a trigger happy squaddie opens fire on a group of unarmed protestors, lighting the fuse for an armed insurrection.

Chief protagonist, Rangi Tamatea, and his group of well armed, well organised Māoris, begin a campaign of lightning strikes against the government and its military forces. (Interestingly, the author’s vision was in some way enacted by the events of the Springbok Tour in 1981 when protestors openly clashed with Police in a series of violent confrontations.)

The final chapters are particularly exciting as the net tightens on the guerrillas and the Māori insurgents fight tooth and nail to stay alive. Meticulously researched, Broken October is a classic Political Thriller.