Manuiota'a

With great intelligence, understanding, emotion, and a breath of gentle irony, the American archeologist Robert C. Suggs and the Swiss author Burgl Lichtenstein describe a unique cruise to the remote Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.

Using the disparate strands of scientific and historical facts, human interest stories of the Marquesans, the ship, its crew, their fellow passengers and themselves, the authors create a single absorbing narrative, just as the ancient Polynesians plaited their pu'u cord from many strands of coconut fiber.

As passengers on the freighter Aranui, the authors describe all the islands of this Polynesian paradise, from north to south, from Nuku Hiva to Fatu Iva. In so doing, they do more than merely provide us with a view of the exotic beauty of the Marquesan islands and their charming inhabitants. Again and again, their suspense-filled journal gives us insights into the mysterious Marquesan culture and the long and turbulent history of the archipelago, which has been so deeply impacted by colonization.

At the end of this enchanting literary voyage, readers will find that they too have fallen under the spell of the Marquesas, just as our two South Sea wanderers have.