Hibiscus Coast

Published by Penguin Group (NZ), 2005, 354 pages. Pages yellowing, crease along length of spine.

Emma Paupere has just returned to New Zealand from Shanghai, where her training as a painter has made her a copyist of incredible skill. Now, Siaki, her ambitious and manipulative ex-boyfriend, has recruited her as a forger, shutting Emma away in a borrowed apartment on Prices Warf. In a room housing the owner's prize possession - a lost painting by Gauguin - Emma works day and night copying on eof the most valuable Goldies in the Auckland Museum. Lost in memories of the two men who shaped her life in Shaghai - her Chinese painting teacher, and the charismatic New Zealander with whom she had a passionate affair - Emma finds herself increasingly exposed to danger. And when talent, hubris and greed collide with disastrous consequences, Emma has no coice but to try to flee up the Hibiscus Coast . . .