Albert Wendt

"Journey through the many stories and worlds of the immortal Vela, the Samoan song maker, poet, and storyteller - Vela, who was so red and ugly at birth they called him the Cooked; Vela the lonely admirer of pigs and the connoisseur of feet; Vela the lover of song maker Mulialofa. Follow Vela down through centuries as he encounters the single-minded society of the Tagata-Nei and the Smellocracy of Olfact and recounts the stories of Lady Nafanua, the fearless warrior queen, before whom travelling chroniclers still bow down today." "This novel stretches from hundreds of years before the arrival of Papalagi to the present day and fuses the great indigenous oral traditions of storytelling and Western poetry." --Book Jacket.

"Albert Wendt recalls his boyhood in the Vaipe, a suburb of Apia in Samoa, just metres from the local cinema, and his life-changing schooling as a scholarship student at an initially foreign New Plymouth Boys' High School. Wendt also explores his fascination with traditional pre-Christian Samoan religion, banned by the missionaries, and while he laments its decline and partial disappearance, he also celebrates its richness and depth."

"In Hawaiʻi Wendt watches the changing shadows of the Koʻolau mountains from his verandah; considers the nature of mauli, the seat of life; walks protected in his partner's perfumed slipstream to work; and writes to fellow poet Hone Tuwhare from the excesses of Las Vegas. In the second half of the book we move to the garden in Ponsonby in 40 'garden' poems. Includes some of Wendt's inky, drawn poems about the Sāmoan tsunami or galu afi. A book about ageing and the consideration of death"--Publisher information.

"Early on a drizzly Saturday morning Faleasa Osovae- the seventy-six-year-old titled head of the Aiga Faleasa, faithful husband of a devoted Felefele, stern but generous father of seven sons and five obedient daughters, and the most respected alii in the village of Malaelua- woke with a strange bitter taste in his mouth to fine . . . that everything and everybody. . . that till then had given meaning to his existence, now filled him with an almost unbearable feeling of revulsion.. . .And so begins an extraordinary reading experience!"-- back cover

Life in colonial Samoa in the 1880s is a time of change, as old structures and beliefs conflict with the modern, secular world. We follow Peleiupe, the daughter of a high-born and respected pastor, as she grows from girl into woman, from woman to matriarch.

"This early collection of eight short stories and a novella is vintage Wendt. Stories convey the unease of a 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."--BOOK JACKET.

In Albert Wendt's new poems, his first collection for over a decade, snapshots of the close and familiar contrast with strange and mythical sequences from a vast Pacific epic in progress and a vivid impressionistic montage of global travel in the late twentieth century. The rich diversity and range of Photographs is astonishing, as this complex writer moves with ease and fluency from ancient Polynesia to contemporary China to family celebrations in an Auckland garden, and through a variety of tones and voices. The collection celebrates grandchildren, family, ancestors and a heritage that stretches back to the atua; and shows a profound and compassionate understanding of the ways we now live in these islands.

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.

"A dynamic group has emerged in Auckland whose members refer to themselves as the Tribe. Mainly Polynesian, they grow up together, rise from poverty and become successful professionals, bound by love and fierce loyalty. At the centre, is Aaron, who lives at the edge of danger, shady dealings and self-destruction. When Daniel, receives a call in Hawaii telling him that Aaron has been killed, he returns to New Zealand, and steps into the most dangerous crisis the Tribe has faced"--Publisher information.