{"product_id":"where-time-begins-9781647424138","title":"Where Time Begins","description":"It's 1976, and Shelley Ilillouette, unemployed and without prospects, has never heard of the Kingdom of Tonga\u0026gt;--but when an artist offers her a job in this South Pacific kingdom, she takes it. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eShe arrives in Tonga to discover that her employer has vanished. Alone in a bewildering world where ancient Polynesia mingles with missionaries, Peace Corps, and yacht dwellers, she is adopted by Foeata, a genial Tongan who decides that a \u003ci\u003emafu\u003c\/i\u003e--a sweetheart--will solve Shelley's problems. Foeata favors the Peace Corps doctor, Skip, but he is smitten with Lily, a mysterious half-Tongan actress. Then Shelley's first and only lover, Jackson, follows her to the islands, and life only get more complicated. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Lily goes missing, too, and Jackson's visit proves disastrous, Shelley has to admit that she has not escaped from anything; she has just brought all the confusion of life with her. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhy, Foeata wonders, are Americans so bad at love? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAmidst encounters with sharks and one octopus (meetings far less harrowing than those she has with missionaries and ex-lovers over the course of her adventure), Shelley untangles a web of stories reaching back decades, leading her to conclude that Tonga may indeed be what its king has proclaimed: the place where time begins.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e She Writes Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/05\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781647424138\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 368","brand":"Sasha Paulsen","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42132438548661,"sku":"9781647424138","price":15.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_daa2d39e-389f-48e5-bd70-dbc1364a1d31.jpg?v=1652813002","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/where-time-begins-9781647424138","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}