By Samantha Magick
Sugar is a commodity weighted with meaning in Fiji, from its role in the country’s economic history and migration stories to its place in the dietary choices and health status of its citizens.
Sugar is also the title and connecting thread between the protagonists of a compelling new novel written by political analyst and researcher Edward Narain, and his partner Tarryn Phillips.
Narain says Sugar draws on his lived experience as an Indo Fijian, born and raised in Fiji, and Phillips’ research in diabetes and time working in Fiji.
“Tarryn is the writer, she is the wordsmith,” Narain said.
“But for each scene, we plotted it very carefully together and crafted the characters, and really talked through…what their motivation were, and dreams and hopes and flaws,” Phillips added.
“And then I would write the scene that we had agreed upon next. We were living in Suva at the time and I’d read it to Eddie.
He’d lie down on the bed next to me, and I’d read the scene that I had written, and if he wasn’t happy…”
“I’d say, ‘that will not do,’” Narain chimed in with a laugh.
“We had a very steadfast sense of who the characters should be,” he continued. “The characters had to be very believable.”

This interaction gives a small insight into the way Narain and Phillips collaborated on their book. Talking to Fiji Traveller, they repeatedly stressed their desire not to slip into caricatures or stereotypes in portraying the lives of their three main characters, an Indo-Fijian amateur historian, an iTaukei teenager caring for his diabetic grandmother in one of Suva’s settlements, and a somewhat clueless, but well-intentioned Australian volunteer. All face troubles and challenges but emerge as likeable, resilient figures in the end.
Their paths intersect as a cyclone bears down on Fiji and they are connected by a brutal, and mysterious murder.
“We wanted to debunk [stereotypes] to some extent, while also representing some of the realities that come from class and privilege and opportunity,” Phillips said.
“My favourite reaction so far has been from people who have been young Australian volunteers…I’ve been struck by how they’ve really reflected on their own experiences and perhaps some of the ways they have behaved.”
Narain adds: “Fiji is a very complex place. It’s got a very interesting, tragic, rich history, a timeline which has led to a point in time right now, which is so diverse and complicated. We try to explain that throughout the book; the relations between Indians and Fijians, [the role of] big corporations, and day-to-day life.”
Which all makes this ‘ethnographic’ novel sound much more dense and heavy-going than it actually is.
In fact, it is a real page turner, a love letter to gritty Suva, and a book full of heart, and often laughter.
