Director Niki Caro's film of The Vintner's Luck is due for release in 2009.

It is Auckland, 1956. While the country has been spared the destruction which ravaged Europe and Asia, beneath the surface bitter memories and old enmities run deep. The war may be over but, as the boy discovers, it is far from done with.

In a poignant and gripping tale of events which challenge and define a post-war community, Derek Hansen superbly captures the spirit of inner city life in the mid-fifties, when migrants and war survivors came to a land of peace and the promise of a new life - only to have it challenged in unexpected and life-changing ways. Hansen has an uncanny knack for bringing back the substance and subtleties of the times and places about which he writes. In this instance, having been raised in ... more