Tuvalu (novel)

Tuvalu is a 2006 novel by Australian author Andrew O'Connor. It won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for unpublished manuscripts by writers under 35.

Plot introduction

The novel is set mostly in Tokyo and tells the story of a young Australian teacher of English, and his relationship with two women, Tilly, another Australian English teacher, and Mami, a Japanese hotel heiress. It is told in first-person.

Explanation of the novel's title

Tuvalu is a small Pacific island nation. It doesn't appear in the novel except as an idea. Tilly describes it to Noah as follows:

I guess for me Tuvalu's always done the trick. I've never been anywhere near it. I've never even studied it. For all I know it might well have sunk. But that one word's taken on a meaning all of its own. [...] Haven't you ever once looked into the future and pictured a different life for yourself, made it a destination in some abstract way? A place in which you are content and from which you never look forward, except maybe to hope for more of the same?^[1]

Awards

• 2007: Commonwealth Writers' Prize SE Asia and South Pacific, Best First Novel: Winner
• 2005: The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Winner

Reviews

• Delaney, Brigid (2005) "The loneliness of the long-distance writer pays off", The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 January 2005
• Dooley, Gillian (2006) Review of 'Tuvalu' by Andrew O'Connor, recorded for Writers Radio, Radio Adelaide, 6 October 2006

References