Book
Return to Paradise
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Michener revisits the South Pacific through paired essays and fictional stories set in islands including Fiji, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia and New Guinea. The pieces describe local landscapes and customs before focusing on individuals caught between inherited traditions, colonial administration and the rapid changes brought by wartime contact.
Some stories return to the moral and cultural tensions associated with the Pacific theatre, while others examine tourism, race, mission influence and the uneasy meaning of “paradise” for people who actually live there. Together, the collection questions romantic Western images of the islands and portrays communities negotiating the aftermath of global war.
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