The Story of a New Zealand River

Jane Mander (1877 - 1949)

"This is the land of the lost, one of those happy spots where no questions are asked. Of course, the fact of a person's being here is usually all the explanation necessary."

The Story of a New Zealand River is a romance set in the Northland region of New Zealand, in the time when the forests of New Zealand's grandest tree, the kauri, were being logged for their exquisite timber. The novel begins as Alice Roland and her free-spirited daughter Asia are being rowed in a black punt by handsome and cultured David Bruce up the Kaipara harbour to their new home at a raw kauri logging settlement in a bend of the Kaiwaka river. Tom Roland, a rough colonial and the boss of the settlement, is Alice's husband of a few years. Alice is a beautiful but tight-laced, proud, puritanical Englishwoman whose mismatch with Tom Roland is not a happy one. They arrive with Alice's piano among their belongings to find a half-built cottage, a strange collection of inhabitants, from gentry to scoundrels, and a place that is beautiful and challenging.

Jane Mander was a New Zealand novelist and journalist. As well as New Zealand, she also lived in Sydney, New York and London. There is a superficial resemblance between The Story of a New Zealand River and the Jane Campion film The Piano, which is principally the setting and the piano. (summary by Gail Timmerman-Vaughan)

Genre(s):

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 CHAPTER I Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:37:21
Play 02 CHAPTER II Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:23:33
Play 03 CHAPTER III Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:20:29
Play 04 CHAPTER IV Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:31:46
Play 05 CHAPTER V Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:19:58
Play 06 CHAPTER VI Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:14:06
Play 07 CHAPTER VII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:09:50
Play 08 CHAPTER VIII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:29:47
Play 09 CHAPTER IX Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:31:00
Play 10 CHAPTER X Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:21:58
Play 11 CHAPTER XI Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:43:18
Play 12 CHAPTER XII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:21:48
Play 13 CHAPTER XIII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:11:51
Play 14 CHAPTER XIV Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:30:33
Play 15 CHAPTER XV Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:19:53
Play 16 CHAPTER XVI Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:19:32
Play 17 CHAPTER XVII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:16:00
Play 18 CHAPTER XVIII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:08:27
Play 19 CHAPTER XIX Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:21:10
Play 20 CHAPTER XX Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:17:13
Play 21 CHAPTER XXI Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:13:00
Play 22 CHAPTER XXII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:04:00
Play 23 CHAPTER XXIII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:07:07
Play 24 CHAPTER XXIV Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:29:42
Play 25 CHAPTER XXV Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:20:30
Play 26 CHAPTER XXVI Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:25:26
Play 27 CHAPTER XXVII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:34:21
Play 28 CHAPTER XXVIII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:24:40
Play 29 CHAPTER XXIX Gail Timmerman Vaughan
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Play 30 CHAPTER XXX Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:30:50
Play 31 CHAPTER XXXI Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:20:55
Play 32 CHAPTER XXXII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:17:28
Play 33 CHAPTER XXXIII Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:20:54
Play 34 CHAPTER XXXIV Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:12:53
Play 35 CHAPTER XXXV Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:14:23