Célestine Vaite grew up in a big extended family in Faa-a-Tahiti, where storytelling was a part of her every day life. Her first two novels about the Mahi and Tehana families, Breadfruit and Frangipani, have been published in the UK, the US, Canada, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Brazil, France, Germany and French Polynesia. She now lives on the south coast of New South Wales with her family.