In Suva, the bustling capital of Fiji, a tropical cyclone is looming. In this city of dazzling contradictions, three strangers are living worlds apart.

Hannah is a young Australian expat who volunteers at a local health organization while leading a heady life of house parties and weekend getaways. Isikeli is a teenager from the informal settlement who has given up on his childhood dream of playing professional rugby and cares for his diabetic grandmother. Rishika is an Indo-Fijian historian who put her career on hold when she got married, only to find that her once compassionate and fun-loving husband has become increasingly estranged.

When a brutal murder causes their worlds to collide, this unlikely trio must search for answers in the cyclone-ravaged city. Along the way, they are each forced to confront uncomfortable truths about development, its darker side, and their place within it.

Based on a combination of long-term research and lived experience, this compelling ethnographic novel reveals the hidden ways in which global inequality and violence play out in the developing world. Keenly observed and full of heart, Sugar is an intimate portrayal of grief, friendship, and culture clash that will prompt new ways of thinking about the world.

Edward Narain is a Fijian political analyst, researcher, and writer.

Tarryn Phillips is a medical anthropologist and sociolegal scholar in the Department of Social Inquiry at La Trobe University.