The Strength of Eggshells by Kirsty Powell

2/8/2024

Kate was raised a farm girl. She’s six feet tall, handles a motorbike like a professional but has insecurities to match her height. She ignores her past by putting her fingers in her ears but that doesn’t keep the questions out. Why did Jane, her mute mother, adopt her out and only communicate through poetry? What became of her grandmother Meredith wo embarked up the Whanganui River on a paddle steamer to marry a war-damaged soldier in the ill-fated Mangapurua Valley, beyond the Bridge to Nowhere? And what should she do now about the love triangle with only two points instead of three? Kate reluctantly rides out on her motorbike to find out the truth of her ancestry and make decisions on the future. This book explores the lives of strong rural New Zealanders, set against the fragile existence that isolation brings, two world wars and a landscape that is slipping away.