Beneath the Kauri Tree

From the author of Toward the Sea of Freedom comes a novel of the triumphs, tragedies, and courage of two women bravely changing the tide of history…

As the nineteenth century draws to a close, the struggle for women’s suffrage has finally reached New Zealand. But when the tide of change rolls in, it threatens to engulf two young women from very different backgrounds, who are coming of age amid the tumult.

Torn between the two worlds that make up her heritage, Matariki Drury is the daughter of a successful white businesswoman and a descendant of Maori royalty. Scarred by poverty and hoping to make a new life for herself in this strange and forbidding land, Violet Paisley is the middle child of a poor Welsh coal-mining family.

Drawn together by their shared commitment to social change, and tested by traumas that neither of them could foresee, these two independent-minded women will find themselves thrust onto the front lines of the fight for equal rights and racial justice. To win their place in this world, they must learn to rise above their personal pain and choose a path of reconciliation rather than retribution.

Born in Germany and now a resident of Spain, Sarah Lark is a horse aficionado and former travel guide who has experienced many of the world’s most beautiful landscapes on horseback. Through her adventures, she has developed an intimate relationship with the places she’s visited and the characters who live there. In her writing, Lark introduces readers to a New Zealand full of magic, beauty, and charm. Her ability to weave romance with history and to explore all the dark and triumphal corners of the human condition has made her a bestselling author worldwide.