Short stories · A way to begin
Tales of the Tikongs
Epeli Hauʻofa · 1983
Synopsis
A series of linked stories set on Tiko, an invented island in the South Pacific. Foreign experts arrive there to impose their model of development, and the inhabitants learn to put up with it or to profit from it: Pulu struggles with the cattle donated by New Zealand, Ole Pasifikiwei meets a diplomat charged with preserving the local culture. Consultants, religious fanatics, swindlers and dishonest officials pass through in turn.
Context
The book was published in 1983 by Longman Paul, then by Penguin and by the University of Hawaii Press. Critics have seen in it tragicomic sketches of a tiny community, where affection mingles with mockery, satire and bawdiness. Ten years later, the author published a famous essay in which he argues that the sea connects the islands of the Pacific rather than separating them.
Who it is for
Short, funny stories, easy to read. The humour is that of a man who knows from the inside what he is mocking.
Prizes and reception
Translated into German in 1998, into Danish in 2002 and into French in 2006; one critic placed its author alongside R. K. Narayan.
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