Trip Fiction: Pacific Mysteries

If you’re anything like me, reading a book in a place you’re traveling to brings it to life in a whole new way. I made a reading list of 25 Novels Around the World to accompany my trip around the world onboard the Azamara Onward. The trip was broken up in to 10 segments. This one covered Hanga Roa/Easter Island, Pitcairn Island, and Tahiti, French Polynesia. If you like this kind of thing check out the posts for the other legs.

Here’s what I actually read, including a quick impression of each book and a link to download it if you’re planning to go to these places (on a plane or in an armchair, both are great ways to travel) and want to check them out.

Easter island: A Novel by Jennifer Vanderbes If you go to Hanga Roa, or have any interest in it at all, this book is a must read. I loved it, and it changed how I experienced the island for sure. It’s a dual timeline story, both featuring women of science dealing with complex personal circumstances as they explore key aspects of this fascinating place.

Mutiny On The Bounty by John Boyne I tried reading the original and was getting bogged down, then a fellow passenger turned me on to this version. It was the perfect read on which to glide in to Bounty Bay. An amazing story well told.

I Am Not Your Eve by Devika Ponnambalam This is the story of Teha’amana, the muse and child bride to Paul Gauguin. It’s told through her perspective, interspersed with letters from Gauguin’s daughter, also 13, as well as through a series of mythical origin stories of the islands themselves. It’s a hard truth, looking at how these girls were offered up to men like Gauguin, but the story is well told and the way it floats from one narrator to another, including the voice of one of Gauguin’s paintings observing the story play out from its place on the wall. Creative.