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Sharks in the Time of Saviors Audiobook
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In 1995, off the coast of Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears the worst. But Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, making his story the stuff of legend.
Kawai Strong Washburn’s debut, Sharks in the Time of Saviors, follows Noa’s family as they struggle amid the collapsing sugarcane industry. They hail his rescue as a sign of the favor of ancient Hawaiian gods—a belief reinforced by Noa’s puzzling new abilities. But as time passes, this supposed divine favor drives the family apart: Noa, now working as a paramedic in gritty Oregon neighborhoods, attempts to fathom his expanding abilities; farther north, in Washington, his older brother, Dean, hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, becoming obsessed with wealth and fame; and in California, his risk-addicted younger sister, Kaui, navigates unforgiving academic and wilderness landscapes to forge her independence from the family’s legacy.
When supernatural events revisit the Flores household in Hawai’i—this time with tragic consequences—everyone must reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.
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“Cries out for us to see Hawaii in its totality: as a place of proud ancestors and gods and spirits but also of crumbling families and hopelessness and poverty. Of mystery and beauty at every corner.”
— New York Times Book Review
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“Mixes hardscrabble Hawaiin reality with flights of wonder and the supernatural.”
— Vanity Fair -
“It’s fitting that Sharks in the Time of Saviors…immediately grips you in its jaw, plunges you into Hawaiin waters, and finally releases you, breathless and changed.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine -
“Graces the reader with the spirit of Hawaii, from its fragrant forests to its cultural traditions, and feels, despite its undercurrent of sadness, like a dose of tropical sun.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune -
“Reads like hula in modern prose, like the gods have chosen [Washburn] as a vessel to cram all the glory and sadness of these islands into the story of one family.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
Awards
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A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
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A London Guardian Best Book of the Year
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An Oprah Magazine Pick of the Year's Best Books
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A Good Housekeeping Best Book of 2020
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One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2020
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A BBC Culture Magazine Pick of 2020's Best Books
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A Barack Obama Reading List Pick of the Year
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A 2020 Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year
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Longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award
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Longlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award
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Winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Novel
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Shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
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About Kawai Strong Washburn
Kawai Strong Washburn was born and raised on the Hamakua coast of the Big Island of Hawai’i. His work has appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading, McSweeney’s, and Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, among other outlets. He was a 2015 Tin House Summer Scholar and 2015 Bread Loaf work-study scholar.
About Tui Asau
Kaleo Griffith is an Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator and classically trained actor. He graduated cum laude from Franklin Pierce University with a BA in theater, holds an MFA in acting from Rutgers University, and is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He has appeared in such television series as Law & Order and Reggie’s Family & Friends, among others.