| Tuvalu | |
| Author: | Andrew O'Connor |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Novel |
| Publisher: | Allen and Unwin, Australia |
| Release Date: | 2006 |
| Media Type: | Print Paperback |
| Pages: | 347 pp |
| Isbn: | 1-74114-871-5 |
| Dewey: | A823.4 22 |
| Congress: | PR9619.4.O286 T88 2006 |
| Oclc: | 74946085 |
Tuvalu is a 2006 novel by Australian author Andrew O'Connor. It won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for unpublished manuscripts by writers under 35.
The novel is set mostly in Tokyo and tells the story of a young Australian teacher of English, and his relationship with two women, Tilly, another Australian English teacher, and Mami, a Japanese hotel heiress. It is told in first-person.
Tuvalu is a small Pacific island nation. It doesn't appear in the novel except as an idea. Tilly describes it to Noah as follows:
I guess for me Tuvalu's always done the trick. I've never been anywhere near it. I've never even studied it. For all I know it might well have sunk. But that one word's taken on a meaning all of its own. [...] Haven't you ever once looked into the future and pictured a different life for yourself, made it a destination in some abstract way? A place in which you are content and from which you never look forward, except maybe to hope for more of the same?[1]
Commonwealth Writers' Prize SE Asia and South Pacific, Best First Novel: Winner
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Winner