‘Emotional’ quake stories in new book
Children too young to vocalise their Canterbury earthquake stories a decade ago have been given a voice in a new novel for young adults.
Time to Remember is a fictional tale inspired by the lived experiences of author Janna Ruth and her peers in Christchurch in February 2011, and the city’s long recovery. The book launched at Tu¯ ranga on Thursday.
It tells the story of 20-year-old university student Natalie and her friends 10 years on from the quakes that destroyed their city, as they face adulthood and come to grips with what happened.
Ruth was a University of Canterbury student herself in 2011, studying geology and tectonic plate movements and writing a master’s thesis on Christchurch’s earthquake potential. She was living on Stanmore Rd in Linwood when the devastating February 2011 earthquake struck.
Each morning afterwards, she had to drive past the collapsed building where fish outlet owner Natasha Hadfield died. She still remembers a poster Hadfield’s children put up there. ‘‘I never drove past there with dry eyes.’’
Ruth had been sitting on a story idea about young people, relationships and growing up since 2006. She had already picked Christchurch as the setting for no reason other than it ‘‘looked nice’’, and knew she had to incorporate the earthquakes.
She decided in 2016 to align the book with the 10th anniversary of the quake earlier this month. She wrote the story in November 2019 and edited it two months later in what was a ‘‘very emotional’’ process.
‘‘I cried all the way through the process. It’s emotional, but it’s a hopeful story too. It’s definitely the most personal book I have written.’’ Originally from Berlin and now living in Wellington, Ruth said Christchurch would always have a place in her heart.
The book’s title comes from the Billy Joel song This is the Time, in which the lyrics ‘‘the time to remember’’ are sung several times in the chorus. The main premise of the novel was that everyone in Christchurch had their own experience with the quakes, and each person’s story was as valid as the next.
‘‘Realising that everyone has their own story from that time is important, for children even more so. They grew up with it in the backs of their minds, and it has changed people,’’ Ruth said.
A late rewrite of the book was required during lockdown last year to incorporate parts of the Covid-19 pandemic, as the novel was set in Christchurch in 2020 as university students prepared for the 10th anniversary of the earthquakes. Time to Remember is available in print and as an e-book.