The Birth and Death of the Miracle Man: And Other Stories

by Albert Wendt

Overview

This remarkable collection of stories offers a portrait of the fascinating and complex world of Samoa. There is Salepa, down on his luck but determined to use his one talent on the reluctant inhabitants of a nearby town; Fiasola, who feels that the Miracle Man is being born inside him; the young man who disgraces his family by stabbing a European nun; and Gabriel who, on the death of his father, relives his family's tragic past.

A gifted and original writer, Albert Wendt has created a world rich in imagination and dreams, reflecting the common experience of people everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780824818227
Publisher:	University of Hawaii Press, The
Publication date:	04/01/1999
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

ʻO le atamai o aliʻi, le Susuga Maualaʻivao Albert Wendt ʻo se tusitala lāuiloa i le Pasefika ma ʻo se polofesa ʻua lītaea mai le Iunivesitē o 'Aukilani, Niu Sila.


Maualaivao Albert Wendt is the Pacific’s most renowned writer. He is an emeritus professor at Auckland University.

Editorial Reviews

These 12 short stories set in Samoa seem at first like fables of a simpler life, yet taken together they prove to be thought-provoking modernistic parables. The title narrative probes one villager's existential dilemma: Fiasola Ta'ase, a schoolteacher, feels that his life has lost meaning until he slays the ``miracle man'' growing inside him. In ``Prospecting,'' the search for gold leads to a burial ground and, oddly, to a new kind of richness and fertility. Several of these tales are entertaining character studies which easily cross cultural lines, as in ``A Talent,'' about a man whose only skill is thievery. Wendt (Leaves of the Banyan Tree moves easily among his characters, evoking a young girl's curiosity and intellectual acuity as vividly as an older man's feelings upon the death of his father. And in all of them, the reader unfamiliar with Polynesian customs will be able to appreciate the beauty of the land, its people, and its collective spirit. (July 18)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly