The Paradise Pact by Anita Heiss

In a departure from the historical fiction of her last best-selling books, Dirrayawadha (2024) and Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (2021), The Paradise Pact is set in present day and is about three fun-loving perimenopausal Wiradjuri women determined to ‘live their best life’. They are three women, long-term friends, living in separate towns, but always linked together via online messaging and Zoom, and of course their annual meet-up, usually somewhere in Australia, but this year it is to be an exciting new international location, the sunsets and beaches of Hawaii.

The trio, Abbey, Stevie and Cait are three quite different women, in different situations with different backstories, but they are always there for each other. The focus of this story, in what promises to be a trilogy of stories, is Abbey, a loving fifty-five year old grandmother to her ‘grannies’, the grandkids, but who is miserable following the break-up of a five year relationship with a partner she now realises never really shared her values. The break-up, a second unfulfilling relationship, shakes her confidence and reignites self-doubts and spiralling negativity. But, then, maybe Hawaii will bring the romance she longs for.

Although the early pages have all the earmarks of the usual ‘heartbreak to romance’ love story, Heiss breaks with convention and makes it more about female friendship, self-empowerment, and respect for First Nations communities. Abbey, Stevie and Cait go to Hawaii with a commitment to learning about the First Nations of that place and soon realise the many similarities in their shared stories of colonisation and oppression. By drawing comparisons with the history of Hawaii, Heiss opens the mind of the less informed reader to the suffering of Aboriginal people following invasion. She provides insight into the pain experienced on Australia Day, the history of suppression of language, general lack of knowledge about Australian history, and the devastation of the failed referendum for the Aboriginal Voice to Parliament. By sharing the history of Hawaii, readers also learn about the history of Australia. Heiss also includes words from the Wiradjuri language that the three women are eager to learn.

While The Paradise Pact can easily be read as a light holiday romance; in a gently unobtrusive way the book offers so much insight into a perspective of Australian history that many may not have engaged with. Perhaps with this book, Heiss has found a way to reach yet another reading audience.

Themes: First Nations, Wiradjuri, Hawaii, Colonisation, Romance, Self empowerment, Women.

Helen Eddy