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Easter Island, Jennifer Vanderbes
Abacus
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

The giant carved monoliths of Easter Island have long fascinated travellers and anthropologists alike. Who made them? What do they signify? Some weigh more than 80 tonnes; how were they moved and erected? Perhaps most mysterious of all, what caused them all to topple? Vanderbes addresses some of these questions in her impressive first novel.

The story begins in 1912. When Elsa and her mentally retarded sister are left penniless by their father's death, it seems the only way to secure their future is for Elsa to put aside her love for a German naval officer and marry their father's colleague, Edward Beazley, a man twice her age. Elsa has devoted her life to caring for her sister and makes it clear she intends to continue doing so, a condition Edward willingly accepts.

A keen anthropologist, Edward takes them to Easter Island, where Elsa helps him in his research and, learning the language, begins trying to decipher the carvings on wooden tablets found in a cave. Engrossed in her project she fails to see that Alice, while having the mind of a child, has the emotions and desires of a woman, and a tense situation arises between the three.

All are unaware of the outbreak of war until the fleet of Vice Admiral Graf von Spee, hounded all over the Pacific by British ships, calls at the island, and Elsa once again meets up with her first love. Only she is told about the outbreak of war, and is warned to keep the situation secret. She does so, with unforeseen and devastating consequences.

Interwoven with this story is that of Greer Farraday, who visits the island  60 years later to join a team of scientists carrying out further research into the island's history. A palynologist, Greer tries to forget an unscrupulous act of betrayal by her late husband and buries herself in her work, collecting core soil samples and classifying the pollen grains found in them to chart the ecological history of the island.

The two stories come together unexpectedly in the end.

While the book abounds in botanical references, they are not intrusive in the context of the work. It is an extraordinarily well-researched and well written book on a fascinating topic.