Eyes of the Sky

The translation of Syaman Rapongan’s Eyes of the Sky at last allows Anglophone readers to see one of the most important Indigenous works of literature from the western Pacific. The novel depicts a world where settler values appear to overtake Indigenous cosmologies, but the Tao people practice their survivance with resilience and grace. This is a universal tale of devotions and regrets, songs and stories, about multispecies interdependence, generational continuities, Indigenous-settler relations, and the wondrous moments where flying fish scales shimmer like stars that are the eyes of the sky. -- Shu-mei Shih, coeditor of Indigenous Knowledge in Taiwan and Beyond
Syaman Rapongan’s poignant meditation on the oceanic civilization of the Tao people unfolds through voices of agile fish, seasoned fishermen, aggrieved daughters, and mixed-race youth. Tao and Mandarin worlds come alive in Shernuk’s masterful translation as generational knowledge and colonial history shape identity, spirituality and ecology on a Pacific island. -- Robin Visser, author of Questioning Borders: Ecoliteratures of China and Taiwan
As one of Syaman Rapongan’s most representative works, this novel explores the traditional Tao culture of Orchid Island and its modern transformations. Expertly translated by Kyle Shernuk, who balances accuracy and cultural nuance, this edition significantly contributes to contemporary Taiwanese literature and the growing field of global Indigenous studies. -- Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang, author of Literary Culture in Taiwan: Martial Law to Market Law
Eyes of the Sky is a mesmerizing tale of man and the ocean that takes readers on dives among coral reefs and shoals of tropical fish. Intimate, deeply humane, and highly readable in Kyle Shernuk’s lucid translation, Syaman Rapongan’s novel makes us witness to the Tao people as they confront the challenges of modernity. -- Nicolai Volland, author of Socialist Cosmopolitanism
Syaman Rapongan once referred to Eyes of the Sky as his attempt to transform the living sea into a book. Now, thanks to Kyle Shernuk, that book has gone through yet another transmutation, allowing its ancestral tales and magical vistas of flying fish, starry skies, and wandering spirits to reach a new audience of readers. To venture into Syaman Rapongan’s living-sea-as-a-book is an experience unlike any other. -- Michael Berry, translator of Remains of Life, editor of The Musha Incident