They Who Do Not Grieve - Softcover

Figiel, Sia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1885030339 ISBN 13: 9781885030337

Publisher: Kaya/Muae, 2003

Synopsis

Sia Figiel's powerful, poetic skills weave together the voices of three generations of women from two Samoan families. Their dream worlds and realities intermingle, just as the histories of each generation run through the next. At the center of the novel is the Samoan woman's tattoo, the malu, believed to be brought from Fiji by Siamese twins. The ghosts of the twins watch over the women whose lives are stained by an unfinished tattoo. The shame and grief of not completing the tattoo ceremony go hand in hand with the shame and grief of illicit love and broken promises.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Reminiscent of Kerii Hulme's The Bone People, this fictional Coming of Age in Samoa, weaves together the voices of three generations of Samoan women from two families, juxtaposing the traditional and the modern, storytelling and real life, the familiar and the strange, the hilarious and the grotesque. Their dream worlds and realities intermingle, just as the histories of each generation run through the next. At the centre of the novel is the Samoan woman's tattoo, the malu, believed to be brought from Fiji by Siamese twins in one of the founding myths of Samoa.

About the Author:

Born in Apia in 1967, Sia Figiel is the first contemporary woman novelist from Samoa. Her first book, "Where We Once Belonged", won the 1997 Commonwealth Writer's Best First Book Prize for Southeast Asia-South Pacific region, and has been translated into several languages. She is also the author of "The Girl in the Moon Circle" and a collection of prose poetry,"To a Young Artist in Contemplation". Also known as a performance poet, Sia is a frequent guest at literary festivals, women's prisons, universities, and high schools. She lives and works in Samoa.

About this edition

• Publisher: Kaya/Muae
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1885030339
• ISBN 13: 9781885030337
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 286