FRANGIPANI

Célestine Hitiura Vaite

Materena Mahi, champion professional cleaner and best listener in all of Tahiti, is usually the one solving the problems. But right now she’sthatclose to throwing her daughter Leilani into the street. ‘It doesn’t matter what I do,’ she confides to Mama Teta, to Cousin Rita, to Mama Loana and to the Virgin Mary Understanding Woman, ‘it’s always the wrong thing. I’m goingtaravana!’ And if that wasn’t enough there’s a boy on the horizon. Or so the relatives are saying.

When everything around her is changing, and the traditional Tahitian rules no longer seem to be enough, Materena realises it’s going to take more than the Welcome into Womanhood talk to deal with the next generation of Mahi women…

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