Hawaii author updates Fiji guide

If you are interested in visiting Fiji — there are regular flights from Honolulu — you might want to check out the guidebook “Suva: A History & Guide.” Originally published in 1978, the book has recently been updated by ­local author and Honolulu Star-Advertiser column contributor Robert Kay. Kay ­co-wrote the original with the late ­Albert J. Schutz, a linguistics professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who specialized in Polynesian languages.

Schutz had been planning to revise the book when he died in 2020.

As a young scholar, Schutz was living in Fiji and working on a ­Fijian ­dictionary when he came down with dengue fever, forcing him to abandon the rigorous academic project and turn to a less stressful project, a guidebook of the Fijian capital.

Rather than a typical guidebook, Schutz organized chapters and sections based on the streets that were named after important figures in Fijian history, such as Verrier Road, named after Dr. Walter Lindsay Isaac Verrier, a medical officer in the British Western Pacific High Commission who researched demographics in Fiji; or Usher Street, named after Len Usher, a past mayor of Suva and editor of The Fiji Times.

Aside from historical tidbits and tours of the city, the other chapters provide information on restaurants and cafes, accommodations and the arts.

The paperbook is $15.99 on Amazon.com and is available free to those with a Kindle Unlimited account.

For more information, go to fijiguide.com.