Hibiscus Coast

Emma Taupere has just returned to New Zealand from Shanghai, where her training as a painter has made her a copyist of incredible skill.
Siaki, her ambitious and manipulative ex-boyfriend, has recruited her as a forger, shutting Emma away in a borrowed apartment on Princes Wharf. In a room housing the owner’s prize possession – a lost painting by Gauguin – Emma works day and night copying one of the most valuable Goldies in the Auckland Museum.
Lost in memories of the two men who shaped her life in Shanghai – her Chinese painting teacher, and the charismatic New Zealander with whom she had a passionate affair – Emma finds herself increasingly exposed to danger. And when talent, hubris and greed collide with disastrous consequences, Emma has no choice but to try to flee up the Hibiscus Coast…