Nightshades and Paperwhites

Alexandra, 1866 The Gold Rush has been and gone. Alexandra is fast becoming a town of dwindling opportunities, especially for Ginny Doyle, an intelligent, young Irish woman with dreams of painting her way through Europe.
New life is breathed into the town as Chinese miners arrive to rework the old claims. Curiosity draws Ginny down to the Chinese camp by the river, where she meets translator and miner Deming Yang. Ginny spends her days painting, lost in endless conversation with Deming as he mines. But there is more than just gold waiting to be unearthed; a murder, a mystery illness, a fire at the Chinese boarding house, a shared kiss and a dark family secret with the power to destroy everything Ginny thought she knew…

Sophie Rogers has created a tender story that enriches our knowledge of history and asks of us, what choices would we have made in those days? How far would we go to stand up for what we believe in and those we love?
—Jillian Sullivan, author of Map for the Heart, Ida Valley Essays and recipient of the NZSA Peter and Diane Beatson Fellowship for a senior writer in 2017.

With Sophie Rogers’ debut novel Nightshades and Paperwhites she has made a highly significant contribution to the cultural and social history of New Zealand, especially since she deals with racial prejudice and matters of the heart. She is a writer of conviction and a writer of conscience. Nightshades and Paperwhites is a page turner, with the narrative moving at a rhythmic pace of lyric intensity. This is an important story that goes to the heart of the matter.
—Michael Harlow, author of The Moon in a Bowl of Water and recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement for Poetry in 2018.

Format: Paperback
Pages: 380
Imprint: Small New Zealand Pub
Publication date: 01/09/2022