This book is actually a combination of two different books, and as such the stories are clearly divided into two categories, that of realist colonialist critique and that of the exotic fable. The two short stories are mythical stories with native Hawaiian protagonists. One is very similar to the story of the Monkey's Paw, and the other involves sorcery and reminds me of a Murakami story. The novella is a story about a trader who comes to an island to trade copra and goes up against a rival trader who dominates the island's trade through dirty tricks.