Candice Tutauha on Rua, her debut novel a decade in the making

Rua is the debut novel of Candice Tutauha, who completed a Master of Creative Writing at the University of Auckland and has spent close to a decade developing the story. It follows a young Maori woman in a tight-knit small town who dreams of becoming a writer and moving to New York City, navigating gang tensions, domestic violence and the weight of community expectation. When a soldier's diary from the Taranaki Wars surfaces, she finds herself pulled into long-buried truths. It's the first part of a planned series. Candice joins Culture 101 to discuss the book.