Book description
Consuming Ocean Island tells the story of the land and people of Banaba, a small Pacific island, which, from 1900 to 1980, was heavily mined for phosphate, an essential ingredient in fertilizer. As mining stripped away the island's surface, the land was rendered uninhabitable, and the indigenous Banabans were relocated…
- Coming soon!
Why read it?
1 author picked Consuming Ocean Island as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I love books that are themselves artworks. Artist’s books take this on in all kinds of fabulous ways, but when writing for academic audiences, making a book that is also art can be challenging. Teaiwa’s book pulls it off.
This book accompanies a touring art exhibition, Project Banaba (I am grateful to have seen it at the Bishop Museum in Hawai’i last year). Together, the book and exhibition communicate deep impulses that inspire many artists: mourning, loss, exile, family, and justice.
My favorite chapter is a photo essay, “Remix: Our Sea of Phosphate.” Staying close to materials, in this case,…
From Lindsay's list on metabolism and digestion in the arts.
If you love Consuming Ocean Island...
These Blue Mountains
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
Want books like Consuming Ocean Island?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 9 books like Consuming Ocean Island.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,367
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like Consuming Ocean Island, you might also like...
Pioneer Paddles of the Colonial South
Award-winning novelist William Auman, author of If Trees Could Testify..., takes the reader on a time-traveling odyssey featuring 345 bodies of water in six states within the historical context through which they unfold.
Journey into remaining Colonial-era wilderness with stories of pirate treasure, epic frontiersmen, Indigenous Peoples, and Revolutionary…
A Winter's Disgrace
Cyprian, a marquess’s heir, will not let his mother choose his next bride. Leaving a house party in a blizzard to avoid her stratagems, he finds a woman trudging half frozen toward the London road. Rosamund fled disgrace, hoping to reach the one person who might shelter her, but even…
