Book of the Week: TURNCOAT by Tīhema Baker

The public service is hot news this week with cuts announced and more cuts to come. It fact, all year the Wellington folk who make the wheels of government turn have been in the churn of the news cycle. Not far behind are increasingly loud noises from the coalition government about co-governance and the place of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It seems like a very good time to read Tīhema Baker’s satirical, but highly perceptive, novel Turncoat.

Daniel is a young, idealistic Human, determined to make a difference for his people. He lives in a distant future in which Earth has been colonised by aliens. His mission: infiltrate the Alien government called the Hierarch and push for it to honour the infamous Covenant of Wellington, the founding agreement between the Hierarch and Humans.

With compassion and insight, Turncoat explores the trauma of Māori public servants and the deeply conflicted role they are expected to fill within the machinery of government. From casual racism to co-governance, Treaty settlements to tino rangatiratanga, Turncoat is a timely critique of the Aotearoa zeitgeist, holding a mirror up to Pākehā New Zealanders and asking: “What if it happened to you?”

Find out more:

• Listen to Tīhema Baker

• How are you complicit?

• Walk in these shoes

• The Human-Alien Relationship

• How the writer writes.

• Hilarious and disturbing

• Longlisted for the JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE FOR FICTION (and in the running for the Best First Book Award!)

• Another standout from excellent indie publisher Lawrence & Gibson

We will be discussing Turncoat at our TALKING BOOKS session in May!