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  • Published: 1 February 2016
  • ISBN: 9780143573678
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $38.00

Bulibasha Film Tie-In



This award-winning novel is being reissued to tie in with the release of Mahana, the stunning film adaptation of the novel.

This award-winning novel is being reissued to tie in with the release of Mahana, the stunning film adaptation of the novel.

Caught in the middle of the clash between two great Maori clans, Simeon, grandson of Bulibasha and Ramona, struggles with his own feelings and loyalties as the battles rage . . .

  • Published: 1 February 2016
  • ISBN: 9780143573678
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $38.00

About the author

Witi Ihimaera



Three-time winner of the Wattie/Montana Book of the Year award, Katherine Mansfield fellow and playwright Witi Ihimaera is one of New Zealand’s most prolific and accomplished writers. Witi’s first novel, Tangi, won the Wattie Book of the Year Award in 1974, a feat he repeated with The Matriarch in 1986. His celebrated novel Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies, now adapted as the film Mahana, won the Montana Book of the Year award in 1995. Witi’s other novels and short story collections include The Whale Rider (also adapted as an internationally successful film); Dream Swimmer (sequel to the award-winning The Matriarch); Pounamu, Pounamu and Nights In The Gardens of Spain. In 2015 he published the first volume of his autobiography, Maori Boy.
 

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Praise for Bulibasha Film Tie-In

I have considered Bulibasha one of my favourite New Zealand novels since I read it on its first release in 1994. I approached a reread of the story wrapped in Penguin's special rerelease with some trepidation. But I needn't have worried - the reread did not disappoint. . . . Bulibasha provides a thought-provoking take on age-old themes, incorporates Te Reo Mori throughout and the setting is evocative. Love and hate, leadership and dictatorship, respect and scorn, it is up to us to distinguish the difference.

Latitude

'Unexpectedly riotous, cunningly crafted' – Dennis McEldowney, Landfall

PRH, PRH

'A comedy of family dislocation and cultural adaptation . . . Ihimaera's style is so fluid and apparently simple that his jokes take you by surprise and make you laugh out loud.' - James McLean, Evening Post

PRH, PRH

'If you've never read this uniquely New Zealand novel, you're in for a real treat, and if, like me, it's years since you last read it, re-reading this fabulous book is like meeting up with an old friend.' – Kerre McIvor, NZ Woman's Weekly

PRH, PRH

Discover more

Article
Looking for ways into Witi Ihimaera's works?

Writing about the Māori world, both rural and urban, often knocking into the Pākehā status quo, Witi Ihimaera’s writing has always offered a broader view of what New Zealand literature could be – should be – about.