Author: Nicki Chen

Language: English

Summary: When Diana quit her job and followed her husband to Manila, she believed the move would work for both of them: Jay would finally have his dream job, and she would take time off from her accounting career to start a family.

Four years later, however, she’s still not pregnant. Her fertility doctor advises her to relax―an undertaking that is easier said than done in one of the noisiest, most crowded cities in the world. Nevertheless, Diana tries. She takes up yoga and meditation. She buys goldfish. Then one day, while Jay is away on business, a violent coup d’etat erupts. The rebels bomb the presidential palace and occupy parts of the city.

Clearly, Diana decides, something needs to change. Determined to have a baby while she’s still young enough, she convinces Jay to transfer to the small South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, said to be “the most relaxing place on earth.” It isn’t long before she realizes that the island’s tropical beauty hides dangers and disappointments that will test her courage, her marriage, and her ability to open herself up to new possibilities.

Notes:

• From the author: “WHEN IN VANUATU is a book of fiction about an expat wife who lives first in Manila Philippines and then in Vanuatu in the South Pacific. It’s 1989 when the story begins, three years after the People Power Revolution that ended the Marcos dictatorship and days before the eruption of yet another bloody coup attempt against his successor, Cory Aquino. Against this backdrop, Diana, a trailing spouse who has left home and career behind, focuses her desire to find some meaning in her life on getting pregnant. Worried that she will soon be too old to have a child, Diana talks her husband into moving to a South Pacific island where she assumes that the conditions for getting pregnant will be better”.

Link: for more info, visit Nicki’s website