Bøker av Albert Wendt

An epic spanning three generations, Leaves of the Banyan Tree tells the story of a family and community in Western Samoa, exploring on a grand scale such universal themes as greed, corruption, colonialism, exploitation, and revenge. Winner of the 1980 New Zealand Wattie Book of the Year Award, this is a classic work of Pacific literature.

Ultimately a book about ageing and the consideration of death, this collection moves from the warm valley winds of Hawai'i to the seasons of a garden in Auckland. In Hawai'i Wendt watches the changing shadows of the Ko'olau mountains from his verandah; considers the nature of mauli, the seat of life; walks protected in his partner's perfumed slipstream to work; and writes to fellow poet Hone Tuwhare from the excesses of Las Vegas. In the second half of the book we move to the garden in Ponsonby in 40 vivid 'garden' poems that are the triumph of the collection. Here joints need replacing, poets grow older, tsunami destroy and friends slip away, but a spirit of renewal and humour pervades - along with prowling cats, baking muffins, flashing kingfishers and visiting mokopuna. And scattered among the garden poems will be some of Wendt's inky, drawn poems - the best are about the Samoan tsunami or galu afi. From Manoa to a Ponsonby Garden is an extraordinary, alert and confident book by one of our most celebrated writers.

Albert Wendt's new collection of short stories explores the nature of family, tradition and culture through the eyes of those seemingly caught between the realities of modern contemporary life and the ancestral ties of their heritage. With a deft touch, he draws us into his characters' lives and with equal parts wisdom and wit, he exposes them to us.

In these short stories of Samoan society, the author uses patois, and often employs a folk-like structure to convey the distinctiveness and the universality of village life.