Pouliuli tells the story of Faleasa Osovae, a Samoan chief who feigns madness to escape the responsibilities and expectations of his high-ranking position. The novel explores themes of identity, cultural conflict, and the human desire for freedom, particularly within the context of Samoan society and its traditions.

ALBERT WENDT, born in Apia, Samoa in 1939, is an author of novels, short stories, and poetry. At age thirteen, he was sent from Western Samoa on a government scholarship to study in New Zealand. With visits home every three years, Wendt stayed in New Zealand to earn an M.A. in history from Victoria University in Wellington. Wendt has a deep love for both countries, and yet he has said, “I accept living in exile as a permanent condition of my life—⁠—a lot of it even in my own country.” It is perhaps this feeling that has tempered his love for Samoa with the insight, sometimes painful, that he needed to write Pouliuli.