Heart's Wild Surf

Romantic, funny and surprising, this novel is a bold exploration of love in a time of confusion. In Fiji at the end of 1918, the distant Great War is drawing to a close and Spanish flu is raging. Twelve-year-old Olive McNab is sent from Suva to stay wih her aunt and uncle on a plantation on Tavenui. On this magical and mysterious island she uncovers some startling, well-kept secrets. The death of her mother, her friendship with two independent women, and a series of adventures change Olive's life for ever. 'Johnson's work is marked by a dry irony, a sharp-edged humour that focuses unerringly on the frailties and foolishness of her characters . . . There is compassion, though, and sensitivity in the development of complex situations . . . A purposeful sense of such larger concerns balances Johnson's precision with the small details of situation, character and voice that give veracity and colour.' - The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature