The Book of Secrets
Fiction, Vintage, 1999
In a creaking old house, in the Far North of New Zealand, lives an old woman called Maria, who some call the ‘witch of Waipu.’ Maria is descended from a line of strong women who have followed the fierce and charismatic preacher, Norman McLeod, across the world. McLeod and a group of crofters set off from Ullapool in the Highlands of Scotland in 1817, headed towards Nova Scotia.