Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn

“I’m going to take us all away from this,” Dean thinks. For the Flores family, there is the myth of the mainland: the idea that opportunity is just an ocean away. Though the ancient legend provides the backbone of the book, Washburn expertly fits it into a very modern story, full of its own kind of myths.

And when his gift wavers, he wonders if it was ever there at all or just a story the family told themselves. Noa, who never asked for his gift, begins to buckle under the burden of supporting his family’s finances and his community’s health.

Noa’s siblings, despite significant talents of their own - his older brother, Dean, is an exceptional basketball player and his younger sister, Kaui, an accomplished student - grow up bitter in his shadow. For the Flores family, Noa’s blessing is the windfall they need: the people who come to see Noa will pay.īut it’s also clear that the miracle will exact a price. Soon the entire community is waiting to see the “miracle boy,” hoping that he’ll cure their ailments. Initially that prophecy seems to come true when Noa’s touch appears to heal a friend’s wound after an accident. Noa’s rescue is miraculous not only because his life is spared but because it echoes an ancient Hawaiian legend that Malia remembers from her childhood - one that suggests that Noa, now anointed, will be the savior of his family, perhaps even of his people. She and her husband have recently moved the family from the Big Island, where they worked as laborers on a sugarcane plantation, to Oahu, and they are drowning in debt. Malia - the matriarch of the family that Kawai Strong Washburn ’08SIPA conjures in his standout debut novel, Sharks in the Time of Saviors - is desperate for something to put her faith in.

“And this,” says Noa’s mother, Malia, “was when I started to believe.”

But instead of mauling him, the sharks carry Noa gently in their mouths, returning him to the boat unharmed. Then something remarkable happens that will change the family forever: Noa falls overboard into shark-infested waters. Nainoa (Noa) Flores is seven years old when his family takes a boat tour in their native Hawaii - a common activity for tourists, but a rare treat for working-class locals like them.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn