Into the River

By: Ted Dawe

Narrated by: Gareth Reeves

Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Margaret Mahy Award.

Some rivers should not be swum in. Some rivers hold secrets that can never be told.

Te Arepa is an adventurous Maori boy, bound to the history, customs and rituals of his people. When he comes upon a giant eel while fishing, he is convinced the creature is a taniwha, or water demon, and follows it. Yet what Te Arepa finds in the river is far different, far more sinister. And it will change his life forever.

Te Arepa has always been curious about experiencing life beyond his tribe. His wishes seem granted when he is awarded a scholarship at a prestigious boarding school far away from the Maori. Leaving behind his family and their traditions, Te Arepa sets out to discover a strange new world with customs of its own...as well as new enemies.

When he arrives at school, Te Arepa finds the freedom and everything it offers intoxicating. But to fit in, he realises, he must shed his identity, his culture and even his name. And he comes to realise that what the water demon showed him in the darkness of the river that day changed him - and that freedom comes with a heavy price.

Ted Dawe has worked over the years as an insurance clerk, a store man, a builder's labourer and a fitter's mate, and he's flown hot air balloons over Hyde Park. He's also been a university student, a world traveller, a high school teacher and an English language teacher. His first novel, Thunder Road, won both the Young Adult Fiction section and the Best First Book award at the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children & Young Adults and will be released by Polis Books.

Into The River won the Margaret Mahy award, which is 'presented annually to a person who has made an especially significant contribution to children’s literature, publishing or literacy, and honours New Zealand’s leading author for children'.

©2013 Ted Dawe (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"Both daring and compulsively readable, in Into the River Ted Dawe combines mythology, history and gritty realism into a powerful novel. An outstanding piece of world literature." (John Boyne, number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas)

Brilliant novel on life in a Boarding school in NZ

I wondered how I would enjoy a novel with a Maori boy as the main protagonist, but the only complaint I have is that it finished abruptly. I could have read many more chapters happily. The ending is sad, unfair, and waiting for a sequel, maybe in time...Brilliant writing Ted, great reading Gareth, you brought it to life. Someone asked what time period it was set in, perhaps 1990 to 2010. Mobile phones, Holden Maloos, the HRT jackets etc are mentioned. Be aware however that typical in many Boys Boarding schools, certain practices took place which are explored that may upset some people who would prefer to see boys as angels