A Runner's Guide to Rakiura

“A Millennial New Yorker, a Stewart Island fisherman,and a WW II veteran walk into a bar...”Maudie’s on the run – from New York and from her past – but she runs headlong into her future when she ends up on Rakiura Stewart Island on assignment to cover Aotearoa New Zealand’s southernmost running trails. Or, as her new fisherman friend Vil puts it: “Giving brainless bucket-listers hard-ons for islands like mine.”She quickly becomes absorbed into island life and once she hears tales of buried treasure, Maudie embarks on a dogged pursuit of the truth, increasingly hooked by gossipy hints. Clues and waypoints are buried in old SIN  s (Stewart Island News) and pieces of the puzzle are scrawled on buoys washed up on the pages.Maudie doesn’t cut a convincing detective figure. She’s an erratic, impulsive, semi-alcoholic millennial, but nothing breaks her stride as she wades into the world of laconic locals and dune grass politics.Welcome to a tale of romance, adventure, and a treasure hunt which will take you through decades and landscapes, from the beaches of Rakiura Stewart Island to the battlefield of Monte Cassino, to post-war Paris, to the Twin Towers rebuild.Vast and sweeping in scope, this brilliant debut novel is braided with stories of love and war, loss, relationships, island lore, and the joys of running.  A Runner’s Guide to Rakiura is also playful, funny, and romantic, and like any good treasure hunt, there will be reckonings, redemptions, and yes… there will be treasure.

"A remarkable novel… to be delighted in for the puzzles, the mysteries, the humour, the sadness, the evocative and vibrant language. The language sings and whispers, digging you in the ribs so that you burst out laughing, clogging your throat with tears… A novel which has touched my heart and which I know will stay with me for a very long time." Paddy Richardson "The work of a born writer… A worthy successor to Maurice Shadbolt. A festival of plot, story and wonderful writing." Professor Patrick Evans, author of THE PENGUIN HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND LITERATURE.

JESSICA HOWLAND KANY was born on Manhattan Island (NYC) and now resides on another extraordinary island: Rakiura Stewart Island, New Zealand. She has lived there since 2002, editing the Stewart Island News (SIN) since 2005. Between island lives, she graduated from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri; lived in San Francisco; wrote for the Jackson Hole News in Jackson, Wyoming; and worked at the Lahaina Library in Maui, Hawaii. On Rakiura she has worked at the pub, the post office/flight centre and is “desk crew” for her fisherman husband. Other hats include librarian, rat trapper, trail runner, “Foveaux foodie”, artichoke enthusiast, and running a myths & legends club for kids. Her writing has appeared in Running Times, North & South, New Zealand Geographic, New Zealand Gardener, Sky & Telescope, Wilderness Magazine, and The Island Review. Besides boogie-boarding with her boys, her favourite pastime is splitting wood.

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