RIPPLE

RIPPLE - a Dolphin Love Story

Ripple is fiction in the Visionary and Metaphysical genre. It is a love story with elements of horror, sci-fi and environmental fantasy. The novel has attracted reviews from all over the world and is often favourably compared to Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Life of Pi. Originally self-published in English, Ripple is now also traditionally published in translation in The Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech edition is called Vlnka.

The Story of the Book

Ripple was first published in 2011 and soon after was selected by the New Zealand Society of Authors to represent it at the Frankfurt Book fair in 2012, the year that NZ was "Country of Honour" there. Reviews continued to arrive until Ripple became one of the best-reviewed NZ novels on Amazon, reaching top spots on several Goodreads lists. She spent many months as top book on the Visionary and Metaphysical Fiction list on Goodreads.

If you have questions about why Tui wrote this book, what inspired her, and how it all came about, this in-depth interview may well answer them:
Read an interview with Ripple author Tui Allen on the Visionary and Metaphysical Fiction web site.

Ripple Now on the New "Shepherd.com" Book Discovery Site

As recently as October 2022 Ripple was featured on the new Shepherd.com   website, which is an intriguing new book-discovery site originating in Europe, built to rival Goodreads. Each Shepherd book is presented on its own page along with a list of the five books that most influenced the author's own writing. This is a new way of helping readers learn something of great value about an author before choosing their book.
You can see Ripple's own page on Shepherd.com here.

Melody - the Dolphin trying to Reach Us

A second dolphin novel, (working title Melody), is at third draft stage. Narrated by the Maori goddess of the sea, Hinemoana, it has links to Ripple despite being set twenty million years later. Unlike Ripple, the story has several important human characters. The new story is set in and around the Bay of Islands. Much of the action takes place in Manawaora Bay in view of the author's own home. Manawaora Bay has recently become part of the new "Dolphin Safe Zone" where all are now required to adhere to special new rules for the protection of marine mammals.

Tui spends many hours paddling around the nearby islands in her kayak. She sometimes meets her own characters face to face out there on the water. These experiences enrich her understanding of them and their setting. She records some of them in videos and photos which she often displays on her youtube or facebook pages.

The author's life, absorbs and enthralls her. Her home in the Bay of Islands of New Zealand has a marine environment which may be as pristine as it is possible to find, in today's polluted oceans.She is strongly motivated to preserve it and all her work is angled to achieve this purpose.