The Predictions

Gaialands, a bucolic vegan commune in the New Zealand wilderness, is the only home fifteen-year-old Poppy has ever known. It's the epitome of 1970s counterculture - a place of free love, hard work, and high ideals...at least in theory. The reality is complicated and sometimes fraught, especially as its children reach adolescence. Poppy is drawn to handsome sixteen-year-old Lukas, who's increasingly skeptical of Gaialands and the adults who shape its rules.

To help 'heal' the commune's energy, new arrival Shakti harnesses her divination powers in a Predictions ceremony. All of Gaialands' teenagers receive a card outlining their futures. Poppy, predicted to find her true love overseas, joins Lukas when he follows his dream of starting a punk rock band first in Auckland and then on to London, where punk has given way 80s pop and hair metal. Struggling simply to survive as they navigate the city's squats, pubs, and burgeoning clubs, she and Lukas drift apart. Poppy finds a life that looks very like the one her prediction promised, but is it the one she truly wants? And if not, can she define her own happiness, even if it takes her in unanticipated directions?

THE PREDICTIONS is a mesmerizing, magical novel of fate, love, mistakes, and finding your place.

“The novel delivers impeccable character development and a beautiful portrayal of motherhood, love, fate and imperfect choices - Australian Women's WeeklyBianca Zander is a superb storyteller with a clear eye for character, location and time - Canvas, Weekend HeraldThis is a lively, tender story of good intentions, mistakes made and of finding your place in the world... utterly engaging - Herald on Sunday (Australia)I really enjoyed this book... it's intimate and immediate and the writing flows freely - Nine to Noon, Radio NZ”

The novel delivers impeccable character development and a beautiful portrayal of motherhood, love, fate and imperfect choices - Australian Women's Weekly

Bianca Zander is a superb storyteller with a clear eye for character, location and time - Canvas, Weekend Herald

This is a lively, tender story of good intentions, mistakes made and of finding your place in the world... utterly engaging - Herald on Sunday (Australia)

I really enjoyed this book... it's intimate and immediate and the writing flows freely - Nine to Noon, Radio NZ

Bianca Zander is British-born but has lived in New Zealand for the past two decades. Her first novel, The Girl Below, was a finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and she is the recipient of the Creative New Zealand Louis Johnson New Writers' Bursary and the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship, recognizing her as one of New Zealand's eminent writers. She is a lecturer in creative writing at the Auckland University of Technology.

Gaialands, a bucolic vegan commune in the New Zealand wilderness, is the only home fifteen-year-old Poppy has ever known. It's the epitome of 1970s counterculture - a place of free love, hard work, and high ideals...at least in theory. The reality is complicated and sometimes fraught, especially as its children reach adolescence. Poppy is drawn to handsome sixteen-year-old Lukas, who's increasingly skeptical of Gaialands and the adults who shape its rules.To help 'heal' the commune's energy, new arrival Shakti harnesses her divination powers in a Predictions ceremony. All of Gaialands' teenagers receive a card outlining their futures. Poppy, predicted to find her true love overseas, joins Lukas when he follows his dream of starting a punk rock band first in Auckland and then on to London, where punk has given way 80s pop and hair metal. Struggling simply to survive as they navigate the city's squats, pubs, and burgeoning clubs, she and Lukas drift apart. Poppy finds a life that looks very like the one her prediction promised, but is it the one she truly wants? And if not, can she define her own happiness, even if it takes her in unanticipated directions? THE PREDICTIONS is a mesmerizing, magical novel of fate, love, mistakes, and finding your place.

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