An epic spanning three generations, Leaves of the Banyan Tree tells the story of a family and community in Western Samoa, exploring on a grand scale such universal themes as greed, corruption, colonialism, exploitation, and revenge. Winner of the 1980 New Zealand Wattie Book of the Year Award, it is considered a classic work of Pacific literature.

When Olamaiileoti Monroe takes her seventy-five-year-old father, Finau, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, both are caught up in a search for understanding of each other and the ties that bind them. Their story unfolds on an international stage--in Samoa, New Zealand, New York, and Israel--and opposes the modern selfishness of Ola to the moral complexity of Finau.

This startling new novel by Albert Wendt takes the form of a fast-moving allegorical thriller. Who are the all-powerful Tribunal and President? Who are the Hunters and the Hunted, and the allies from the depths of the city? Set in a future New Zealand where only the Citizen who asks no questions can achieve happiness, a renegade hero seeks to rescue his family in the State-sponsored Game of Life.

This important anthology of contemporary Pacific writing in English is a successor to Lali, first published in 1980 and widely read and admired. Nuanua, like Lali, edited by distinguished Samoan writer Albert Wendt, shows the growing strength and confidence of Pacific writing in fiction and poetry since 1980. It includes work from new and well-established writers from nine Pacific communities: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Samoa. The legacy of colonialism and the problems of development and political change are among the themes...

Originally published in 1973, this story of star-crossed lovers spotlights the complex nature of love, freedom, and racism in New Zealand. Samoan writer Albert Wendt's first novel, Sons for the Return Home, has long been out of print. Yet, readers continue to respond to the clarity of vision in this simple, powerful story of cross-cultural encounter.

This remarkable collection of stories offers a portrait of the fascinating and complex world of Samoa. There is Salepa, down on his luck but determined to use his one talent on the reluctant inhabitants of a nearby town; Fiasola, who feels that the Miracle Man is being born inside him; the young man who disgraces his family by stabbing a European nun; and Gabriel who, on the death of his father, relives his family's tragic past.

A gifted and original writer, Albert Wendt has created a world rich in imagination and dreams, reflecting the common experience of people everywhere.

This early collection of eight short stories and a novella is vintage Wendt. Stories convey the unease of traditional island community caught up in the rapid changes of the modern world. Wendt writes with enviable directness and with deep feeling: comedy and tragedy are often hard to distinguish as his characters struggle to come to terms with their changing world.