Miller presents, at times, a fascinating portrayal of the tensions that arise from familial and cultural ties. The early chapters depicting Lanisha’s childhood and early adulthood in Fiji are compelling, and often deeply disturbing, for she suffers from emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her family. It is here that Miller’s unadorned prose is most powerful. Describing scenes of intense trauma, her minimalist, perfunctory vocabulary generates a brutal realism.

Unfortunately, empathy for Lanisha soon dwindles: her adult irrationality and passivity are frustrating. She experiences misfortune with the inevitability of a metronome, and while she eventually extricates herself from these difficulties, any narrative momentum is lost in the multifarious paragraphs in which Lanisha wallows in self-pity.

Miller has obviously surmounted a great deal of personal tragedy in her life. Had Yearning for Acceptance been written purely as autobiography, it would have easily fulfilled the requirements and reader expectations of the ‘misery memoir’. Similarly, had Miller focused on the Indo-Fijian experience, the novel would have had greater socio-cultural import. However, as a work of fiction, the book’s lack of momentum and dénouement ultimately disappoints.