A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE
FINALIST
2009 NSW PREMIER’S LITERARY AWARD
2010 WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING
NOW AVAILABLE AS AN
AUDIOBOOK
COME ON SHORE AND WE WILL KILL AND EAT YOU ALL
IN AUSTRALIA, I often used to stand on the beach and look out to sea and think about what it must have been like to see these places for the first time. It was a curious thought, since the view from where I stood was exactly the opposite of what those first Europeans saw. They, seeing land from sea, recorded it in gently undulating profiles, taking note of any distinctive formations that might prove useful to future navigators. To them it was a stretch of rocky coastline, miles of inscrutable grey-green bush, a series of possible landfalls, inlets and bays where one might get water, reefs and sandbars to avoid. To me, standing there with my back to the cliffs, it was a great reach of emptiness, a stretch of possibility, the gentle curve of the horizon at the edge of the sea…
Praise for Come on shore
A charming blend of travel writing, cultural history, anthropology, and memoir, this intriguing book honors the nineteenth-century explorers’ narratives that are its inspiration. ― Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever
“In the space of 250 pages … [Thompson] gives us a great complex of rippling stories spanning centuries and continents and the great Pacific Ocean. The book’s success, its pleasure and wisdom, come from the love that acts as the connective tissue, bringing… us to a new understanding. — Drusilla Modjeska, author of The Orchard and Stravinsky’s Lunch
Engagingly and candidly explores what our histories—both personal and national—give us: not answers but rather ‘the most interesting questions.’ — San Francisco Chronicle
A thing of beauty . . . Thompson manages in her memoir to do what good fiction does: this book will certainly entertain those who want to learn more about Pacific history. — Tampa Tribune
Few readers will forget their first meeting with the author, with her Maori husband, and with the historical context that swirls around them. Thompson writes beautifully, and, even more remarkably, she surprises us on every page.
— Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Offbeat, intimate and absorbing . . . a story about mutual incomprehension, illuminated, if not dispelled, by the author’s own romance with the Maori. — The Economist
Thompson . . . puts her vantage point of insider-outsider . . . to good effect, tracing the genealogy of racial stereotypes and cutting through some of New Zealand’s most cherished myths about itself. — New York Times
A highly unusual blend of personal memoir, travel writing and anthropology . . . the happy result of a scholarly writer looking round at this particular theoretical minefield and deciding to make it her home. — Sunday Times (London)
This book stands out because of its sharp, fine writing and the fresh glimpses it gives of New Zealand . . . Her story is told with a strong and compulsive narrative drive. — New Statesman
A fascinating glimpse into the adventure of cross-cultural relationships . . . Come on Shore and We will Kill and Eat You All is a unique book. . . . an examination of how the present is a child of the past. — News-Leader
It’s this human connection that makes this book so potent a work. . . . While Tasman arrived first at the crossroads of history, Thompson has chosen to make her home there. — New Zealand Geographic
A sedulous animation of what historians call ‘the subject position,’ which underlines the way historical truth can be apprehended only subjectively . . . a superb book full of gravity and truth. — Sydney Morning Herald