BOOK LAUNCH: puke by essa may ranapiri

A takataapui verse epic that follows two atua waahine living their queer, poorhara lives on a giant Dead Fish

They first meet a million years ago, in the eruption of a volcano.

The second time, it’s in a liquor store: Hinenuitepo is buying a lighter for Mahuika; Hinemoana is picking up drinks.

Before long, they become entangled in rituals of mortality— love, hot chips, a carved bone strap-on, multiple evictions and a new puppy—all while holding down their duties as Death and the Sea.

But there is a great sickness rising in them both. The other atua have begun to disappear, and their world is slowly dying. Somewhere, an insidious power waits.

As the story shifts between our two lovers, Puke weaves a modern puuraakau of desire, decay and decolonisation.

‘Ranapiri exceeds expectations with their extraordinary third book. Death-sex, atua and taiao converge in an epic poem with a lover’s ache at its core. Puke is a mythopoetic waananga, a Rarohenga fever dream, a book that understands the stakes for te ao Maaori are planetary.’
—Tru Paraha, poet and lecturer in Māori Literature at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington