In Our Own Back Yard

It’s March 2020 and Liza, her husband and two teenage children are at home in Auckland in level-four lockdown due to Covid-19. Reflections with her family around the dining table inspire Liza to reflect on another challenging time in history — nearly forty years before — when the South African rugby team toured New Zealand.

Casting her memory back to 1981, Liza recalls her life as a fifteen-year-old, including her first love, friendships, first-hand experiences of racism, and what it means — and what it costs — to find your voice and use it.

In Our Own Back Yard is a startling, confronting portrait of a society divided. Anne Kayes has written a masterful YA novel that considers questions of human equality that are as pertinent in the twenty-first century as they were in 1981.

‘Anne Kayes’ book addresses significant turning points in New Zealand history — the 1981 Springbok rugby tour and the pandemic which impacted on us in 2020. In order to continue moving forward as a society, we must learn from these experiences.’ — Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand, 1999–2008