Lin and the Red Stranger

A simple and well told story about two very different characters, and their continued interactions over the course of a few months. Set in the gold rush on the West Coast of New Zealand (from the 1860s) around 1895, it starts in a boat from Australia to Dunedin in the South Island of NZ. An Irishman, Declan, down on his luck and on the run from the law in Ballarat, and a young Chinese girl, Lin, an indentured servant to an elderly Chinese man come to seek his riches from the gold.
They make their way up the coast, and the two repeatedly cross paths. The red stranger (his very non-Chinese red hair and blue eyes identify him) seems to bring good fortune to Lin, and to Declan, Lin reminds him of his daughter, back home in Country Clare.
A short book, but well written from the two points of view in which it is told. Life must have been very tough for all, but particularly bad for the Chinese who were often working harder, and were subject to terrible treatment by the others, who despite being equally foreign, were considered less foreign.