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“The Hawaiian chapters are a sensory blowout—the scent of ginger, the taste of mango, the sound of frying squid…pack Song of the Exile for your next trip to the tropics…richer than a box of macadamias.”
— San Diego Union-Tribune
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“The strengths of this novel are many. Davenport is a superb storyteller. She always keeps her readers engaged in her novel’s story and caring about her characters.”
— Seattle Times
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“[An] utterly absorbing story…Song of Exile is about love and war, hopes and dreams, the individual and history. It’s the perfect beach book, an escape to a Hawaii that springs to vivid life beyond the postcard views.”
— New Orleans Times-Picayune
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“Roiling, romantic…Rich and textured…There’s music, passion, refugee camps, cruelty, and all the strange bedfellows bred by destiny.”
— Boston
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“Davenport weaves into her lush narrative indelible portraits of Honolulu’s narrow back streets and hot music clubs, Hawaii’s complex coming to statehood, and of the pain, disfigurement, and shame that was the legacy of the war’s tragic legion of so-called comfort women.”
— Elle
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“Davenport has a clarity of vision that makes her descriptions of Hawaii a match for the island's lush environment.”
— Kirkus Reviews