The Loneliness of Islands
Published by Pacific Writing Forum and Ivy Press International.
In 1976 Satendra Nandan published a slender volume of poems, Faces in a Village, It was the first book of poetry in English published in Fiji. Since then his Voices in the River (1983) and Lines Across Black Waters (1977) have also appeared.

In The Loneliness of Islands, poems published in the earlier volumes are collected together with new poems.  Perhaps more than his fiction, critical or autobiographical writings, these poems reflect the growth of a poetic sensibility shaped by childhood memories of his girmitya grandparents in an obscure village in the Pacific Ocean, adjoining Nadi international airport.

He has lived through parliament, coups, migration, exile and return – a variety of experience is refracted through the individual voice of a poet, who was born in Fiji and has lived and studied in India, England and Australia, countries of the mind which have shaped his writing and distinctive subjectivity.

From reviews: ‘prophetic’,‘epical’, ‘visionary’,‘brilliant’,‘lyrical’,‘vintage Nandan’.

“Life’s rich fabric presented vivid colours in Fiji…Satendra Nandan paints a brilliant picture…a delight, this book (The Wounded Sea) is a jewel.” Don Dunstan, Australian Book Review.

“Satendra Nandan is a joy to read…simply in a class apart”. Christina Thompson, Landfall.

‘Every heart makes its own pilgrimage’.  In the Loneliness of Islands, Satendra Nandan takes us on a personal, poetic pilgrimage to his beloved homeland Fiji and to his adopted countries Australia and India.  The poetry richly evokes a tropical paradise, its fall from grace and the author’s hopes for new signs of humanity.  A man of vision, Satendra has created a personally haunting portrait of an island country.
-  Professor Bruce Bernett UNSW

The book is available from USP Bookshop Suva and Tappoo Newslink in Fiji. It will be distributed in Australia through UNI CO-OP Books at Uni Canberra from June. ………………………………

Satendra Nandan is the Foundation Professor and Dean of the School of Humanities and Arts at The University of Fiji.  He is also the Head of Department of Language, Literature and Communication and the Director of the Gandhi-Tappoo Centre for Writing, Ethics and Peace Studies.

Born in Nadi, Fiji, Professor Nandan studied, under various awards, at the universities of Delhi, Leeds, London and The Australia National University.  He
is an award-wining writer and has edited and authored more than a dozen books.  He is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Canberra and an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Professional Ethics CSU, ANU and Melbourne and also in The Research School of Humanities, ANU.

He has been an elected international Chair of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies, ACLALS, and the Foundation president of International PEN, ACT, Australia.  He is currently writing a book Gandhi: Ekla Chalo – Walk Alone for Australasian readers, and a novel set in Fiji, India and Australia, My Brother’s Story.