Minal Hajratwala

Minal Hajratwala first visited Fiji at age four, when she met her grandmothers for the first time and got a fishbone stuck in her foot. She returned numerous times, interviewing relatives and poring through archives to research her award-winning epic Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents. Called "incomparable" by Alice Walker and "searingly honest" by the Washington Post, the book won four literary awards in the United States. It opens with the story of her great-grandfather, who first migrated to Fiji in 1908.