Globe Corner Bookstore’s Shortlist of South Pacific Literature
Everyone dreams of sitting on a white beach–hot sun, cool drink, palm trees bending over your head instead of looming responsibilities. If you’re like most of us and can’t get to a beach right away, try one of these books on a warm, exotic locale. In this mix of fiction and nonfiction, relaxing observation and thrilling adventure, everyone is sure to find something to fulfill their fantasy.
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Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
by Tony Horwitz
Two centuries after James Cook’s epic voyages of discovery, Tony Horwitz takes readers on a wild ride across hemispheres and centuries to recapture the Captain’s adventures and explore his embattled legacy in today’s Pacific.
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In a Sunburned Country
by Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson lives to tell the story of his exploits in Australia, where A-bombs go off unnoticed, prime ministers disappear into the surf, and cheery citizens coexist with the world’s deadliest creatures.
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The Songlines
by Bruce Chatwin
Part adventure story, part philosophical essay, this extraordinary book takes Bruce Chatwin into the heart of Australia on a search for the source and meaning of man’s restless nature.
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Tracks
by Robyn Davidson
A cult classic with an ever-growing audience, Tracks is the brilliantly written and frequently hilarious account of a young woman’s odyssey through the deserts of Australia, with no one but her dog and four camels as companions.
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Once Were Warriors
by Alan Duff
This hard-hitting novel is frank and uncompromising in its portrayal of Maori urban New Zealand society, a world of frustration, resentment, and waste. Duff is fearless in his depiction of a part of his own society that he knows well.
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Straying from the Flock: Travels in New Zealand
by Alexander Elder
An intimate and personal account of one passionate traveler’s visit to New Zealand’s mountains and beaches, fjords, rainforests, vineyards, and hidden eateries.
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The Secret River
by Kate Grenville
After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is sentenced in 1806 to be transported to New South Wales for the terms of his natural life.
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The Bone People
by Ken Hulme
Set in the harsh environment of the South Island beaches of New Zealand, this masterful story brings together three singular people in a trinity that reflects their country’s varied heritage. Winner of the 1985 Booker-McConnell prize for fiction.
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The Last Grain Race
by Eric Newby
The Last Grain Race is Eric Newby’s spell-binding account of this time spent on the Moshulu’s last voyage in the Australian grain trade. A classic tale from one of the world’s best-loved travel writers.
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White Mary
by Kira Salak
Returning from a harrowing assignment in the Congo, Marika learns that a man she has always admired from afar, Pulitzer-winning war correspondent Robert Lewis, has committed suicide. But when Marika finds a curious letter from a missionary claiming to have seen Lewis in Papua New Guinea, she has to wonder, “What if Lewis isn’t dead?”
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Kiwi Tracks: A New Zealand Journey
by Andrew Stevenson
Andrew Stevenson made true on the dream many of us have of escaping from everyday life, tossing a few possessions in a backpack and traveling light in far-off lands. In a hiker’s heaven, he treks along the Milford Track, the Kepler Track, the Abel Tasman Track, and other famous walking routes.
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The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific
by Paul Theroux
Intrepid traveler Paul Theroux ventures to the South Pacific, exploring fifty-one islands by collapsible kayak. He paddles alone over isolated atolls, through dirty harbors and shark-filled waters, and along treacherous coastlines.
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The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
by Maarten Troost
After racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs, author Troost decided the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the Earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better.
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Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All
by Christina Thompson
An extraordinary love story between a Maori man and an American woman, that inspires a graceful, revelatory search for understanding about the centuries-old collision of two wildly different cultures.
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Read more:
Australia/Oceania,
General,
New Zealand,
South Pacific,
Travel Writing
