Signal Search

Claire Mabey reviews Lauren Keenan’s latest historical novel that centres on the lives of two women a century apart. The Other Catherine by Lauren Keenan (Te Āti Awa ki Taranaki) is dedicated to a list of women, their names forming a supportive crowd, and to “all the other women who came before me. I wish I knew more of your stories – and more of your names.” It’s an apt ode to women’s lives but also to the difficulty of unearthing them from the obscuring tendencies of patriarchy and colonisation.