The Space Between by Lauren Keenan has won Best Adult Fiction Book at the 2025 NZ Booklovers Awards.
We are delighted to share that The Space Between by Lauren Keenan has won Best Adult Fiction Book at the 2025 NZ Booklovers Awards.
The award judges commented: "This debut novel by Lauren Keenan (Te Ātiawa ki Taranaki) has the twisty tautness of a thriller and the fine-grained emotional resonance of the best historical fiction. It centres on Frances, one of a formerly well-to-do family of English settlers, and wahine Māori Matāria, who enter each other's lives with a jolt – when Frances, a spinster, learns the man who once jilted her is now married to Matāria – just as their community starts to splinter on the eve of the First Taranaki War. Keenan is a supremely confident writer who unfurls a story of love, shame, pride, friendship, and conflict with empathy and authority."
Lauren Keenan (Te Āti Awa ki Taranaki) is an award-winning writer of creative non-fiction, fiction, short stories, and popular psychology. She has won the Pikihuia Awards for Māori writers and participated in the Te Papa Tupu mentoring programme. Her debut historical fiction novel, The Space Between, is a national bestseller.
For more information about the awards, visit the NZ Booklovers website.
The Space Between Lauren Keenan
This gripping historical debut by Lauren Keenan (Te Ati Awa ki Taranaki) is a story of the transformative power of hope, the unbreakable bonds of whenua and family, and the discovery of love in the least likely of places.
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