What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?

The passionate, uncompromising sequel to the blistering classic novel, Once Were Warriors ‘She always came the following day for a visit on this yearly remembering; in fact Polly Heke came several times a year and done for the last two, from when she herself hit the same age as Grace’d been when she, uh, when she like killed herself.’ The searing power of Alan Duff’s masterpiece Once Were Warriors rocked a nation and was acclaimed around the world. What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted? is the passionate and uncompromising sequel, which takes up the story of the Heke family six years after Grace’s suicide.

Accolades

Winner of Montana New Zealand Book of the Year Award Fiction Category 1997.
Shortlisted for APA Design Awards: Random House Best Designed B-Format Book 1998.

Author Biography

Alan Duff was born in Rotorua in 1950. He has written novels, including Once Were Warriors, One Night Out Stealing, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, Both Sides of the Moon, Szabad, Jake’s Long Shadow, Dreamboat Dad and Who Sings for Lu?, a novella (State Ward), several children’s books and a number of non-fiction works. Once Were Warriors won the Pen Best First Book for Fiction Award and, as well as What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, was made into an internationally acclaimed film. Duff was the driving force behind the Books in Homes scheme, which, with commercial sponsorship and government support, aims to break the cycle of illiteracy, poverty, anger and violence among underprivileged children by providing books for them to own. The New Zealand Listener claimed that Duff’s debut, Once Were Warriors, ‘bursts upon the literary landscape with all the noise and power of a new volcano’, while acclaimed writer Witi Ihimaera wrote, ‘This is the Haka, the rage of a people who, yes, once were warriors … A kick to the guts of New Zealand’s much-vaunted pride in its Maori/Pakeha race relations. A breathless fearless debut.’ The Sydney Morning Herald heralded the sequel, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, as ‘a masterpiece’: ‘powerful, authentic, moving, brilliantly written … a profound and passionate novel … a memorable experience’. The Australian praised its ‘universal truths to be savoured for their poetic insight’, while the Canberra Times called it ‘a brilliant work … poetic and full of hope’. The New Zealand Listener wrote that What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? ‘carries the story on with doubled brilliance. The new book is just as dynamic, just as in-your-face as the first one, but less violent, more layered, more fundamentally thoughtful and challenging.’