In 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When sharks appear in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends.
Nainoa’s family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods—a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities. But as time passes, this supposed divine favor begins to drive the family apart: Nainoa, working now as a paramedic on the streets of Portland, struggles to fathom the full measure of his expanding abilities; Further north in Washington, his older brother Dean hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, obsessed with wealth and fame, while in California, risk-obsessed younger sister Kaui navigates an unforgiving academic workload in an attempt to forge her independence from the family’s legacy.
When supernatural events revisit the Flores family in Hawaii—with tragic consequences—they are all forced to 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.”
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New York Times Book Review