WINNER OF THE 2020 PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL. One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2020. A finalist for the 2020 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. Named one of the Best Books of 2020 by the New York Times (#30), the Guardian, the Boston Globe, Oprah Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, BBC Culture, Good Housekeeping, LitHub, Spectrum Culture, Third Place Books, and Powell’s Books.Sharks in the Time of … Culture, Third Place Books, and Powell’s Books.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors is a groundbreaking debut novel that folds the legends of Hawaiian gods into an engrossing family saga; a story of exile and the pursuit of salvation from Kawai Strong Washburn.
“Old myths clash with new realities, love is in a ride or die with grief, faith rubs hard against magic, and comic flips with tragic so much they meld into something new. All told with daredevil lyricism to burn. A ferocious debut.”
—MARLON JAMES, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf
“So good it hurts and hurts to where it heals. It is revelatory and unputdownable. Washburn is an extraordinarily brilliant new talent.”
—TOMMY ORANGE, author of There There
Named one of the most anticipated novels for 2020 by the Guardian and Paste Magazine. One of Book Riot’s Best Books to Give as Gifts in 2020.
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 a shiver of sharks appears 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 Hawai’i—with tragic consequences—they are all forced to reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.
more
I have family in Hawaii and enjoy books that take place there. The “magical” quality of the story line reminded me a bit of an Alice Hoffman book but the it lacked the depth of plot and complexity of a Hoffman book.
I enjoyed reading about an Hawaiian family and about the mythology of Hawaii, written by an author who was born and raised there. And he is an excellent writer! The book captured me!
FICTION: In this debut novel by a Minneapolis author, mythic ancestral magic empowers and tests one Hawaiian family.
Special to the Star Tribune FEBRUARY 28, 2020
http://www.startribune.com/review-sha…
“Big destiny is a thing you get drunk on,” Kawai Strong Washburn writes in his sweeping, effervescent debut novel. The expectation for a grand destiny rests on Nainoa Flores, the youngest son in a native Hawaiian family. He fell off a boat when he was 7 but was rescued by sharks and returned to his mother, gingerly, in their jaws. Nainoa goes on to excel in all subjects, from math to ukulele, and evinces mysterious healing powers.
“Sharks in the Time of Saviors” incorporates magic but focuses on the real repercussions for the family of a boy tasked with an unbearable burden to use his gifts to save his home and people. Greatness, as Washburn explores, has a way of dissipating.
Washburn tells the story in alternating perspectives from the members of the family. Besides Nainoa, there’s Malia and Augie Flores, the hardworking, financially struggling parents who conceive Nainoa outdoors on a night when they witness “the night marchers,” a supernatural troop of ancient Hawaiian royals processing along a ridge, carrying torches. There’s Dean, the oldest son, who distinguishes himself in basketball but little else, and Kaui, the youngest, who rivals Nainoa in intelligence and achievement even as he continually eclipses her.
One of the primary delights of this novel is the singular voice that Washburn creates for each of his narrators. He writes with verve and laces their language with wit and Hawaiicisms. Nainoa earns “shaka respect from every local that heard the shark story and felt the old gods in it.” People donate much needed money to the family. The difficulty that native Hawaiians experience in surviving on the expensive islands is a strong theme. As Kaui puts it, “It became like a prayer at our house, Our Father who art in debt collection, hallowed be thy pay.”
The community believes Nainoa’s magic might elevate conditions for all and rekindle respect for old traditions, but no one seems to know exactly how to achieve this. This novel questions the idea of any savior — an exceptional figure a community looks to as a leader, whether it’s an athlete, an engineer or a healer. As the novel takes somber turns, with the three Flores children scattered, pursuing college degrees on the mainland, it suggests that everyone who seeks change must contribute to it instead of waiting for a mythic guru.
Washburn’s reverence and longing for the land and traditions of Hawaii is so strong you might catch homesickness even if you’re a haole (non-Hawaiian) who does strange things like butter your rice and leave your shoes on indoors. This novel 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.
Jenny Shank’s short story collection, “Mixed Company,” won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and will be published by Texas Review Press in October 2021. Her novel, “The Ringer,” won the High Plains Book Award. She teaches in the Mile High MFA Program and her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, the Washington Post and the Atlantic.
The novel presents a clever puzzle, but a few pieces don’t quite fit.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors is a remarkable debut novel. The author deals with difficult subject matter, what Kirkus referred to as mysticism and miracles, in an engaging fashion that keeps the characters grounded. Their humanness is not overpowered by the miracle of Noa’s rescue by sharks, nor by what is perhaps a mystical character trait in the family that gives an extreme sensitivity to desperation felt by others, sometimes desperation so strong that its owner lets life slip away. These situations are used to set up and propel family dynamics associated with failures and successes experienced throughout the story by Noa and his siblings. But in the end the sum of their interactions with each other is the one problem with the novel. The siblings don’t quite get to closure. Something resembling a miracle appears to occur at the end, whether that be the revelations of Malia or the successes of Kaui or the return of Dean, but it doesn’t quite tie up the loose ends. For the family members their stories are not a journey to their roots, as one reviewer has claimed, but to individual self-understanding. And the last pieces of the puzzle for them, those that would make their understanding of the events satisfying, don’t quite fit into the picture.