'The characters are at once complex and believable. As they grapple with the challenges of their daily lives, the questions they raise about faith, the meaning of life and the redemption of recovery echo far beyond the confines of Hokianga and indeed beyond the remote islands of New Zealand itself. This is a substantial novel that demands an in-depth analysis and certainly more than one reading.' - Reader review on Amazon (5 star)

 

'This is a wonderful novel; I simply couldn't put it down. The characters are rounded and real, whilst the story itself is both poignant and menacing. I loved the sense of New Zealand's wildness, the way goodness clashes with evil forces, the humour, romance and pathos interwoven within the narrative.'- Reader review on Amazon (5 star)

 

Suspicion and hostility lead to brutal destruction when eucalyptus planters and cannabis growers connect, on the property of an eccentric English nun in a remote and beautiful corner of New Zealand.

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A Blue Forest is a romantic drama set in the Hokianga, a wild and beautiful part of New Zealand. It is the story of Jill, housekeeper to Sister Isobel (an old and eccentric English nun) and of Jill's husband Martin, who is confined to a wheelchair after a road accident. When tragedy again strikes both their lives Sister Isobel invites them to stay at her hermitage, in order to assist their recovery. It is a place of peace, prayer and meditation, where both Jill and Martin sense new directions and meet the people who will move their lives onward. But both come to break Sister Isobel's strict monastic rules, and when Liam, an old friend of Martin's, starts visiting him at night bringing marijuana, whiskey, and incriminating photographs of Jill with a local forester, an explosive situation develops which threatens all their futures, even that of the hermitage itself.

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'The narrative ebbs and flows with seemingly unstoppable force, as danger, always imminent, is averted once again. This makes for a compulsive page-turning read.' - Ruth Parkin Gounelas, Professor of English Literature at the university of Thessaloniki

 

 

Additional Information :

Independently Published 2019 (revised 2021) - ISBN: 9781706930013 - 103.000 words, approx. 400 pages - Paperback

Rights: World