Description
Fiction. Sia Figiel is the first contemporary woman novelist from Samoa. Her first book, WHERE WE ONCE BELONGED won the 1997 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best First Book and has been translated into several European languages. In the sequel, THEY WHO DO NOT GRIEVE, Sia Figiel's powerful poetic skills weave together the voices of three generations of women from two families in Samoa and New Zealand. Their fates indeliably joined by betrayal and an unfinished tattoo, Lalolagi and Tausi pass along a complex legacy of stories, secrets, and courage to their granddaughters, Malu and Alofa. This link invokes the mythic twin sisters who originally brought the tattoo custom to Samoa as they navigate a society that threatens their self-determination as Samoans and as women.
Author Bio
Sia Figiel was born in 1967. Author of novels, plays, and poetry, she has traveled extensively in Europe and the Pacific Islands, and has had residencies at the University of Technology in Sydney, the East-West Center in Hawaii, the Pacific Writing Forum at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, and Logoipulotu College in Savaii. She is also known as a performance poet and has appeared at several international literary festivals. Her first novel, WHERE WE ONCE BELONGED, won the Commonwealth Writer's Prize Best First Book for the Southeast Asia/South Pacic region. She lives in Samoa.
Author City: Matautu Tai WSA