Jake’s Long Shadow

The millennium has changed but have the Hekes? Where are they now, Beth, Jake, and what of their other children? Son Abe who has rejected violence but violence finds him. Polly, as beautiful as her sister Grace, who committed suicide; is that a Heke running with the wealthy polo-playing set and growing rich herself? And the gang leader, Apeman, who killed Tania, what’s prison like? Does it change a man, grow him or not? We meet another tragic female figure, Sharneeta. And Alistair Trambert, a middle-class white boy sunk into the same welfare dependency trap as the Maoris his class criticise. Meet Charlie Bennett, Beth’s husband, a fine man and yet … And yet there’s Jake Heke, casting his long shadwo over everyone. Has he really grown up?