Five Union prisoners of war escape from a Confederate prison camp in a hot-air balloon, only to crash land on an unknown island where they must learn to survive on their own.

When Evan's father dies suddenly he finds a hand-bound yellow book on his father's desk, a diary of a Japanese soldier stranded on a Pacific Island during World War II. What is in this account that Evan's grandfather, Griff, whom Evan has never met before, fears so much that he will do anything to prevent its being seen? And what could this possibly mean for Evan? As the story shifts between suburban Ontario and the horror of the desert island, tragedy...

"Mata Austronesia is a collection of illustrated stories told by Austronesians past and present-an (ethno)graphic novel. Mata, the word for "eye" in numerous Austronesian languages, represents the common origin of the many distinctive Austronesian peoples spread throughout their vast oceanic realm. The tales in this book immerse us in the beauty of this shared heritage, ancestral memory, and cultural legacy. Millennia before the first Europeans ventured...