Sugar

An Ethnographic Novel

By: Edward Narain, Tarryn Philips

Narrated by: Vivien Carter

In Suva, the bustling capital of Fiji, a tropical cyclone is looming. In this city of dazzling contradictions, three strangers are living worlds apart. Hannah is a young Australian expat who volunteers at a local health organization while leading a heady life of house parties and weekend getaways. Isikeli is a teenager from the informal settlement who has given up on his childhood dream of playing rugby and cares for his diabetic grandmother. Rishika is an Indo-Fijian historian who put her career on hold when she got married, only to find that her once compassionate husband has become increasingly estranged. When a brutal murder causes their worlds to collide, this unlikely trio must search for answers. Along the way, they are each forced to confront uncomfortable truths about development, its darker side, and their place within it.

Based on a combination of long-term research and lived experience, this compelling ethnographic novel reveals the hidden ways global inequality and violence play out in the developing world. Keenly observed and full of heart, Sugar is an intimate portrayal of grief, friendship, and culture clash that will prompt new ways of thinking about the world.

©2024 University of Toronto Press (P)2024 University of Toronto Press

Excellent point of entry for studies of development health and culture in a Fijian context

It’s a great story, with a terrific narrator. I will assign this book in my undergraduate course on the anthropology of international development. My only technical complaint: each chapter features the point of view of different main characters, and the audio recording doesn’t provide sufficient pause when switching the POV. In fact, there is actually less pause between POV switches than between paragraphs and the turn-taking of character dialogue. That’s an audiobook production problem that really throws off the listener because we have no sense that the POV has changed so quickly!