Philadelphia Inquirer Gives Rave Review to Christina Thompson’s Debut Memoir

A recent Philadelphia Inquirer review has offered high praise to Christina Thompson’s new book, Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story, which explores how the author, an American scholar and now Harvard Review editor, met, married and made a family with a Maori foundryman named Tauwhitu.

“If it were nothing more than a memoir, Thompson's first book would make fascinating reading as the story of a mismatched but loving pair making their way in a world where they can never really be at home,” notes the July 20 review by award-winning memoirist Floyd Skloot. “But Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All is more than a memoir. It incorporates Thompson's extensive research into New Zealand and Maori history, and the early European exploration of the Pacific islands. It explores sociological considerations of the culture clash between colonizer and colonized, and the ways that such myths as the Maori's savage ferocity are perpetuated.”

The review concludes: “At heart a love story, Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All is a moving examination of exploration — both inner and outer — and the way our travels into remote places on Earth can become travels into the remote places in our hearts and souls.”

Thompson will discuss her debut book on Thursday, September 25, in Dewberry Hall on George Mason University’s Fairfax campus.