Format: Paperback

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Pages: 416

An epic spanning three generations, Leaves of the Banyan Tree tells the story of a family and community in Western Samoa, exploring on a grand scale such universal themes as greed, corruption, colonialism, exploitation, and revenge. Winner of the 1980 New Zealand Wattie Book of the Year Award, it is considered a classic work of Pacific literature.

Albert Wendt is the author of five novels, two collections of short stories, and two volumes of poetry. His first novel, Sons for the Return Home, and the novella Flying-Fox in a Freedom Tree have both been made into feature films. Born in Samoa, he has worked and travelled throughout the Pacific and is acknowledged as one of the region's major writers. He presently lives in Auckland, where he is a professor of English at the University of Auckland.