Emma Taupere has just returned to New Zealand from Shanghai, where her training as a painter has made her a copyist of incredible skill.
Siaki, her ambitious and manipulative ex-boyfriend, has recruited her as a forger, shutting Emma away in a borrowed apartment on Princes Wharf. In a room housing the owner’s prize possession – a lost painting by Gauguin – Emma works day and night copying one of the most valuable Goldies in the Auckland Museum.
Lost in memories of the two men who shaped her life in Shanghai – 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 choice but to try to flee up the Hibiscus Coast…
Hibiscus Coast
