His characters live in a modern yet mystical version of the archipelago, one whose essence no conqueror can ever fully eradicate. But Washburn has no interest in the Hawaii of resorts and honeymoons, thank goodness. The characters in Kawai Strong Washburn’s singular debut novel, “Sharks in the Time of Saviors,” live in a place with a name: Hawaii. Those first humans to walk the earth felt the presence of things unseen, heard the whispers of spirits and feared nothing, for they knew life and death were intertwined and the dead were a part of them - their past, present and future. A time when no separation existed between our forebears and the trees and rivers and mountains that surrounded them. There once was a time when places had no names. (Mar.SHARKS IN THE TIME OF SAVIORS By Kawai Strong Washburn Though perhaps overlong, Washburn’s debut is a unique and spirited depiction of the 50th state and its children. Poised halfway between their cultural upbringing and hopes for the future, the family is riven by a horrific tragedy that will test them to the breaking point. Dean embarks on a promising career as a basketball player in Spokane only to wind up in trouble with the law, while Kaui discovers her sexuality in San Diego, and Nainoa becomes an EMT in Portland, Ore. As things become more desperate, Nainoa and his violent older brother, Dean, and adventuresome younger sister, Kaui, leave the island to seek their fortunes on the mainland. This seminal event in the lives of the Filipino-Hawaiian Flores family marks Nainoa for life as the “miracle boy,” even as his parents struggle to turn a profit on their sugarcane plantation.
This family chronicle opens in 1995 Honok’a as the seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls from a ship, only to be rescued and returned to his parents by sharks. Washburn’s standout debut provides a vivid portrait of Hawaiian identity, mythology, and diaspora.
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