Historical Fiction from the Pacific Islands

For generations of women in two Samoan families, the significant cultural ritual of the malu, a woman’s tattoo tied to the country’s founding mythology, remains uncompleted. The grief and shame of an unfinished malu haunts the women as much as any illicit love affair. Watching over these generations are the spirits of the conjoined Fijian twins, believed to have brought this tradition to the island in the first place.

On a family vacation in 1995, a boy is rescued from the ocean in the jaws of a shark, who delivers the child back to his mother. Noa’s family heralds this miraculous rescue as a sign from the ancient Hawaiian gods, a belief that is only cemented when he begins to exhibit puzzling new abilities. But the supposedly divine favor shown to the Flores family only serves to drive them apart over the years, scattering Noa and his siblings across the continental United States. When supernatural events revisit the family years later, the tragic consequences force them to reckon with their bonds, their heritage, and the lengths they’ll go to in order to survive.

When a Maori teenager is hit by a bus on the way to see his girlfriend, he is suddenly transported back to Egypt in the early 1900s. There, he finds himself living out the experiences of his great-great-grandfather in the Maori Contingent during WWI. As Riki tries to come to terms with what is happening to him and find a way back to his own time, his grandfather’s interviews about his experience during the war reveal just how intertwined their fates have become.

A Ngati Wai chief sits for a portrait over the course of several days in 1886 Auckland, New Zealand. The painter, Gottfried Lindauer, soon plans to travel to England, a trip which reminds Chief Paratene Te Manu of his own journey there two decades prior with a group of northern Maori chiefs. As Lindauer paints, Paratene recounts the story of their travels, from the triumph of meeting with royalty in London to their descent into poverty, humiliation, and ruin.

As a young woman lies in a hospital bed recovering from grave injuries, her grandmother watches over her and recounts the story of their family—a story which may help explain the circumstances that led them there. Tracing their roots back through the centuries to the arrival of James Cook in the Hawaiian islands, the grandmother explains how generations of their family have been tasked with safeguarding the pohaku, a stone that possesses immense magical abilities. The pohaku has brought both fortune and misfortune throughout the generations, but those who carry it, especially the women, have the power to channel great good into the world.

James Pōneke, once known as Hemi, comes to Victorian London with bright eyes and hope in his heart as part of an artist’s entourage. The son of a Maori chief, James was educated for several years at a Christian mission and jumps at the chance to travel to England with an artist touring New Zealand. Soon, James finds himself dressing up as a living exhibit for the artist’s showcase, and slowly, he begins to realize that the places and people he has long idolized may be far darker than he realized.