ABOUT
THE BOOK

Pele’s first moment of remembered consciousness is the morning kiss of the mango fruit on her cheek. That kiss brings with it the awareness of mortality, pleasure and pain. It is a gift from her father, Mautu Tuifolau, the local pastor, the man she adores. Love is never simple, though, and in this story of the struggles and passions of Pele and her family, it must adapt to the growing world that stretches out from the village life in Samoa to the cities of Europe, America and New Zealand. Her love for her father must accommodate the conflicts of a gifted family and the attraction of extraordinary outsiders, from a famous English writer to an American anthropologist, to missionaries and the trader Barker, with his quest for gold and epic tales of an adventurous past. And her love must encompass the family’s links to the ancient gods of pre-missionary times and move through the turn of the nineteenth century, the First World War, the terrible Spanish Influenza Epidemic and beyond.