A Dangerous Vine Book

"In that city, at the end of their street, was the sea."This simple yet evocative line sets the scene for a powerful novel. Barbara Ewing introduces us to three girls growing up in a troubled New Zealand during the 1950s. Margaret Bennett, the heroine, works in the Bureau by day and studies Maori by night, returning home each evening to her remote and beautiful mother. However, there is one thing the family never discuss--the death of Margaret's older sister Elizabeth by drowning--and Margaret battles daily with the feeling that she is somehow held responsible for this. Mysterious Prudence has a house on top of the hill where she hosts all-night parties at which stories are exchanged, much beer drunk and Maori songs played to guitar accompaniment, but she too often cannot sleep for the dark secrets which haunt her. Finally, sharp, clever, Emily, daughter of an eminent Member of Parliament, secretly loathes her father for his sexual affairs, which are hidden behind a professional, smooth exterior, and resolves that her career will break the mould. However, she finds herself pregnant by her Maori lover and life takes an unexpected turn.The three girls move their way through this haunting story against a backdrop of atmospheric descriptions--the sea, the ships, the hills and the night air. A Dangerous Vine is a novel of growing up, self-awareness and revelation, entwining touching human emotions in its tendrils: "She missed Manu and his sunshine smile with a funny pain she'd never felt before. She breathed in the smell of the Maori dictionary, holding her head in her hands ... she saw she had written, from one of the old Victorian ballads, taru kino, the dangerous vine that the song said making love was." --Vanessa CurtisRead More