River Song by Belinda Hollyer

A book infused with the Maori culture natural beauty of the author's birthplace, Takapuna, New Zealand, this is a deceptively simple story about a girl living with her grandmother in a rural village, who comes to realise that adult life is as confusing as childhood when her wild and carefree mother reappears determined to take her away to the bright city lights.

Synopsis by Foyles.co.uk

This book contains a charming, first-person narrative, set in New Zealand and beautifully threaded with Maori culture. The story follows Jessye, a girl whose tumultuous life flits between her grandmother and her mother, as she tries to make sense of her family past and the secrets that lurk beneath the surface of all of their lives.