Ten Great Books set around the SOUTH PACIFIC

3rd May 2026

Ten great books set around the South Pacific

The nations of the South Pacific are categorised into three distinct regions: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The countries, such as Fiji, Samoa, and Vanuatu, are defined by their profound connection to the ocean and ancient seafaring traditions. While some islands are high-altitude volcanic formations with fertile soil, others are low-lying coral atolls particularly vulnerable to climate change.

Beyond their postcard-perfect lagoons, these nations possess rich cultural identities, blending traditional tribal customs with colonial influences. Despite their geographical isolation, they are global leaders in environmental advocacy, fighting to protect their unique biodiversity and marine ecosystems.

Here are ten other our favourite books set around the region.

Man Belong Mrs Queen by Matthew Baylis – TANNA

As a bookish child growing up on Merseyside in the 1980s, Matthew Baylis identified with the much-mocked Prince Philip as a fellow outsider. He even had a poster of him on his bedroom wall.
Years later, his Philip-worship long behind him, Baylis heard about the existence of a Philip cult on the South Sea island of Tanna. Why was it there? Nobody had a convincing answer. Nobody even seemed to want to find one.
His curiosity fatally piqued, the author travelled over 10,000 miles to find a society both remote and slap-bang in the shipping-lanes of history. A place where US airmen, Lithuanian libertarians, Corsican paratroopers and Graeco-Danish Princes have had as much impact as the missionaries and the slave-traders. On the rumbling slopes of this remarkable volcanic island, banjaxed by daily doses of the local narcotic, suffering from a diet of yams and regularly accused of being a divine emissary of the Duke, Baylis uncovered a religion unlike any other on the planet.

A Pattern of Islands by Arthur Grimble – KIRIBATI 

A Pattern of Islands is the funny, charming and self-deprecating adventure story of a young man in the Pacific. Living for thirty years in the Gilbert and Ellis Islands, Grimble was ultimately initiated but not before he was severely tested, as when he was used as human bait for a giant octopus. Beyond the hilarious and frightening adventure stories, A Pattern of Islands is also a true testament to the life of these Pacific islanders. Grimble collected stories from the last generation who could remember the full glory of the old pagan ways. This is anthropology with its hair down. Like discovering a treasure chest of fables, which were once true, it is full of stories of magic, dances and legends, rituals, spells and a way of life that have now disappeared from this world except within the covers of this book.

Euphoria by Lily King – PAPUA NEW GUINEA

It is December 1932 and Andrew Bankson, isolated for several years whilst studying a tribe in New Guinea, is increasingly frustrated by his research. Then on Christmas Eve, he meets Nell Stone, famous and controversial anthropologist, and her wry, mercurial husband, Fen. Enthralled by the magnetic couple, Bankson promises to take Nell and Fen to a new tribe they can study, and within months the three are producing their best ever work. But this intense new environment is dangerous as well as invigorating, and soon Bankson has ignited a firestorm of fierce love and jealousy that burns out of control. Ultimately, their ground-breaking work will make history, but not without terrible sacrifice.

Set between the wars in a landscape on the brink of massive and irreversible change, Euphoria is a captivating story of desire, possession and discovery inspired by real events in the life of Margaret Mead, a woman whose work changed the way we understand our world.

Food of Ghosts by Marianne Wheelaghan – TARAWA

Nothing ever happens on Tarawa, a coral atoll in the middle of the Pacific. Then a mutilated body is found in a children’s nursery hut. Detective Sergeant Louisa Townsend from Edinburgh is on the island, helping train local police officers in basic detecting skills. She is asked to find the killer and jumps at the chance to be in charge of her first murder investigation. She marvels at the simplicity of the task ahead – after all, how difficult can it be to find the murderer on a desert island the size of a postage stamp and with only one road? But nothing on Tarawa is what it seems. There is a rumour the victim’s eyes were eaten as part of a macabre, cannibalistic ritual and a second body is found and a third death looks suspicious. With no forensics on Tarawa and no one telling the truth, Louisa begins to worry she’s out of her depth – not to mention the voices in her head have started up again. DS Townsend is an engaging, new female detective from Edinburgh, who is as impetuous as she is ambitious, with an innate sense of justice at her core. Her determination to find the killer is matched only by her struggle to overcome an obsessive compulsive disorder, which threatens to consume her. To read Food of Ghosts is to be taken to Tarawa and be immersed in the crazy sights and sounds of the contradictory island and its people. Food of Ghosts is the first in a series of crime novels featuring DS Louisa Townsend.

From Kauri Trees to Sunlit Seas by Don Silk – THE COOK ISLANDS

Don Silk built his first boat, the “Patsy Jean”, with a book on boat building in one hand. Constructed from specially milled Northland kauri, it was launched at Opononi, on the Hokianga Harbour, and in 1959 he set off for Rarotonga with his wife and baby daughter. Scarcely more than a decade later he was the co-owner, with Bob Boyd, of the highly successful inter-island shipping company Silk & Boyd, based in the Cook Islands. At their peak in the 1970s, they operated a fleet of three vessels and moved thousands of tonnes of cargo around the South Pacific, as well as to the various international destinations. This work recounts Silk’s adventures in the Pacific over nearly four decades. During this time, vessels were bought and sold, rebuilt and wrecked: cargoes of coconuts and corned beef, pineapples and pearl shells were transported, along with crazy English beachcombers and Mormon missionaries complete with bicycles. The excitement of hurricanes and shipwrecks, stowaways and drunken sea captains was matched by the challenge of outwitting officialdom, as Silk endeavoured to explain, on one occasion, a shipment of arms and, on another, a cargo of liquor worth more than a million dollars.

The Coconut Wireless by Simon Michael Prior – TONGA

When Simon and Fiona embark on a quest to track down the Queen of Tonga, they have no idea they’ll end up marooned on a desert island.
No idea they’ll encounter an undiscovered tribe, rescue a drowning actress, learn jungle survival from a commando, and attend cultural ceremonies few Westerners have seen.
As they find out who hooks up, who breaks up, who cracks up, and who throws up, will they fulfil Simon’s ambition to see the queen, or will they be distracted by insomniac chickens, grunting wild piglets, and the easy-going Tongan lifestyle?

Things Bright and Beautiful by Anbara Salam – VANUATU

Advent Island is a place beyond the reaches of Bea’s most fitful imaginings. It’s not just the rats and the hordes of mosquitos and the weevils in the powdered milk. Past the confines of their stuffy little house, amidst the damp and the dust and the sweltering heat, rumours are spreading of devil chasers who roam the island on the hunt for evil spirits. And then there are the noises from the church at night.

Yet, to the amusement of the locals and the bafflement of her husband, Bea gradually adapts to life on the island. But with the dreadful events heralded by the arrival of an unexpected, wildly irritating and always-humming house guest, Advent Island becomes a hostile place once again. And before long, trapped in the jungle and in the growing fever of her husband’s insanity, Bea finds herself fighting for her freedom, and for her life.

Leaves of the Banyan Tree by Albert Wendt – SAMOA

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, it is considered a classic work of Pacific literature

A big story in every sense of the word… peopled by the richest assortment of characters in Pacific fiction, running the gauntlet of human action, the gamut of human emotion.” –New Zealand Herald

“Does more than tell a whopping good story about life in Samoa around the time of Independence: it tells each of us our own story in new terms.” –Manoa

Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones – BOUGAINVILLE ISLAND 

Bougainville, 1991. A small village on a lush tropical island in the South Pacific. Eighty-six days have passed since Matilda’s last day of school as, quietly, war is encroaching from the other end of the island.

When the villagers’ safe, predictable lives come to a halt, Bougainville’s children are surprised to find the island’s only white man, a recluse, reopening the school. Pop Eye, aka Mr Watts, explains he will introduce the children to Mr Dickens. Matilda and the others think a foreigner is coming to the island and prepare a list of much needed items. They are shocked to discover their acquaintance with Mr Dickens will be through Mr Watts’ inspiring reading of Great Expectations.

But on an island at war, the power of fiction has dangerous consequences. Imagination and beliefs are challenged by guns. Mister Pip is an unforgettable tale of survival by story; a dazzling piece of writing that lives long in the mind after the last page is finished.

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Treasure Islands by Pamela Stephenson – THE SOUTH SEAS

Megaselling biographer, internationally renowned psychologist, ex-comedienne and mother of four (three teenage girls and Billy Connolly), the extraordinary Pamela Stephenson now adopts a new guise – historian, sailor, and circumnavigator of the globe.

In Treasure Islands, Pamela follows in the intrepid footsteps of Fanny Stevenson, maverick wife of the even more maverick Robert Louis. They have much in common – a fascination with the South Seas, a thirst for adventure, a fearlessness and great humour in the face of adversity and unpredictable husbands.

Compelling, intriguing, unputdownable, Treasure Islands is travel/adventure/history/celebrity all rolled into one extraordinary book.

We hope you enjoy our selection of great books set around the South Pacific!

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