A review by liralen
New Guinea Moon by Kate Constable

4.0

The 'about the author' section of New Guinea Moon tells us that Constable grew up in New Guinea, where her father was a charter pilot, and it's safe to say that that personal experience is a boon for the book. Julie, the protagonist at hand, has not grown up in New Guinea, but when she visits her estranged father, she gets more of an education than she'd expected: about her father and his life, yes, but also about politics and race and colonialism. It's for that reason that I'm giving this four stars: I love seeing the complexity of the characters as local and 'European' practices collide. There aren't a lot of one-dimensional characters here; a character can be supportive and thoughtful in some ways and deeply racist in others. More interesting and more realistic than a more black-and-white view, and also just more interesting and complex for addressing New Guinea's history of colonisation (and the longer-lasting impact) in depth at all.