A historical mystery novel set in 1914 Fiji takes readers back to the era of British colonialism - and an economy supported by indentured labourers brought over from India to work on the nation's sugar cane plantations.
A Disappearance in Fiji is on the surface a whodunnit set in tropical Suva, but at its heart, it's a story of the plight of indentured Indian labourers and the impact of British colonialism in the Pacific. It's the work of Nilima Rao, an Australian debut author who has been looking at her own Fijian Indian heritage and has traced the story of her great grandparents who went to Fiji in the early 1900s to escape poverty.