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.”
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