Into the River is a novel by Ted Dawe, featuring a coming-of-age story set in New Zealand,[1] and intended for a young adult audience.

[3][4] Set in New Zealand, the book tells the story of Māori youth Te Arepa Santos as he moves from the East Coast to Auckland to boarding school, where he has encounters with intimacy, sex, drugs, racism and death.

[5][6] The conservative Christian lobby group Family First appealed this decision, and applied for an interim restriction order, which was granted by the President of the Board of Review.

[8][9][10] The banning of the book has led to an increase of interest in it, something that has been cited as an example of the Streisand effect, in which an attempt to oppose something leads to its wider dissemination as an unintended side-effect.

[11] On 14 October 2015, the Film and Literature Board lifted the interim ban on Into the River; ruling by a majority that while aspects of the book were offensive it did not merit an age restriction.