Atoll life is lonely, even when surrounded by the abundance of the sea. But it is here that man's indomitable will conquered the sea in an epic drift aboard a canoe; it is here that massive schools of tuna find their way after migrating across the vast Pacific.
Since the days of the early islanders, change has always come to the central Pacific violently: when the second world war reached the islands, they became battleground, the scars of which they still carry; when the islands were used as testing grounds for atomic bombs, its people became military guinea pigs; and, most recently, the prospect of global warming threatens to erase the islands from the map entirely.
Here, all the players in this rich drama have a voice and a story to tell.
Above all, Islands of the Frigate Bird is the magnificent saga of the people of the central Pacific-people who have battled every type of political, commercial and cultural onslaught from outsiders in order to retain their identity.
Author Daryl Tarte is a lifelong Fiji resident living in the capital city of Suva. An accomplished writer, Daryl has published three novels, a biography, a coffee table book and a history of 20th century Fiji. Islands of the Frigate Bird was inspired by the lack of stories told from the perspective of the exploited people of the Central Pacific. Daryl has been happily married for 51 years and is the proud father of two.
