Hong Kong, USA, UK: University of Hawaii Press, 2002. Pbk ISBN 0824825918

In the words of Patricia Grace, 2001 Kiriyama fiction winner, "It is wonderful to have a novel coming from the Pacific of people firmly rooted in the past and present of this great ocean, its atolls, islands, homes, and spiritual homelands. It is a good story with robust characters, and an important book." The word "Melal" means "a playground for demons, not habitable by people", and on Good Friday, 1981, Rujen Keju and his two sons come face to face with their complicated inheritance - one that includes years of atomic testing and the continued military presence of the U.S. in the Pacific. In this highly original work of history and adventure, Robert Barclay weaves together characters and stories from mythological times with those of the present-day to give readers a rare and unsparing look at life in the contemporary Pacific.