Start here
Mr Tulsi's Store: A Fijian Journey
Brij V. Lal
Memoir, 2001
A memoir of growing up in an Indo-Fijian cane-farming family in Vanua Levu, set against colonial and postcolonial Fiji.
Books set in Fiji
Five books by writers from Fiji, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with Mr Tulsi's Store: A Fijian Journey and The Wounded Sea.
About the literature of Fiji
Much of Fiji's best-known writing comes from Indo-Fijians, descendants of labourers brought from India under indenture between 1879 and 1916. Sugar-cane farming, independence from Britain in 1970 and the coups of 1987 recur in their work. Most of it is written in English, though Fiji Hindi and Fijian are both widely spoken, and memoir sits alongside fiction and short stories.
Satendra Nandan's novel The Wounded Sea is set between cane-farming communities and the capital during the upheaval of the 1987 coups. Subramani's The Fantasy Eaters gathers stories of village and small-town life, shaped by family pressures and the legacy of indenture. Brij V. Lal's memoir Mr Tulsi's Store recalls growing up in a cane-farming family in Vanua Levu, and Joseph Veramu's novel Moving Through the Streets turns to the young people of Suva's streets.
By writers from Fiji
The Wounded Sea
Satendra Nandan
Novel, 1991
A novel of Indo-Fijian life and the political upheaval of the 1987 coups, set between Fiji's cane-farming communities and the capital.
The Fantasy Eaters: Stories from Fiji
Subramani
Short stories, 1988
Short stories of Indo-Fijian village and small-town life, showing family pressures, religion and the legacy of indenture.
Kava in the Blood
Peter Thomson
Memoir, 1999
A memoir by a Fiji-born diplomat, blending personal history with Fiji's independence, coups and place in the Pacific.
Moving Through the Streets
Joseph Veramu
Novel, 1994
A novel of Suva's urban youth and street life, showing the social pressures of modern Fijian city living.
More from Oceania
Australia Kiribati Marshall Islands Micronesia New Zealand Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu