Sharks in the Time of Saviors

By: Kawai Strong Washburn

Narrated by: Jolene Kim, Kaleo Griffith, G. K. Bowes, Tui Asau

Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

In 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, 7-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 Hawaii - with tragic consequences - they are all forced to reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.

©2020 Kawai Strong Washburn (P)2020 Recorded Books

extraordinary

I found this book to be a bit slow to start but so, so wonderful once I got into it, poetic, humane, and wise.

Great sense of location

this is a fascinating read. great sense of the importance of Hawaii to its people, although it sometimes gets lost in the weeds.

Great roadtrip read. Loved it.

I thought the story was beautiful and the characters so relatable. Not very cliff-hangery like I was expecting, but enough drama to keep the story juicey and intriguing.
A wonderful job painting an honest picture of lower class hardship, and how our backgrounds and circumstances often limit our options and shape our decisions.
I appreciated learning more about native Hawaiian culture.
The voices narrating were so perfect too. Glad I listened to this one. thanks KSW

Gorgeous story telling!!

Absolutely loved this book! Loved the performance of the readers. Wish it didn’t end.
It would be a great movie.

Really didn’t understand the point of this story

Enjoyed the performance but really struggled to finish the book. Would say the narrators
did a good job though.

Almost nailed it

This story is a familiar one for us in rural Hawai’i Island, and while it was at times hard to follow, it was easy to get back on track if you slipped down the cliff a little.
The only bummer is that the performers were not all authentic in their Pidgin accent, and Hawaiian pronunciation, which ended up detracting from the overall experience. I wish they would re-record this performance so that they all sound as local as Augie’s performer. It would make the performance a 10. It would sound like the people who the story is about.

What Happens to People

We all love to vacation on the islands of Hawai’i. It once belonged to a people not white. But they were colonized then taken over by white people. So when we sip Mai Tai’s under the coconut trees, read this book and think about how the displaced people that once owned the Islands, try to survive living in another culture today.

Definitely a must listen

The amazing ensemble cast of narration made this book. I definitely would not have enjoyed it as much if I had simply read the words and not listened to the beautiful accents and pronunciations. I thought the story was beautifully written, and very descriptive but unfortunately, just depressing. Maybe it’s where I am in life but I kept waiting for something great to happen and it never really did; it was just hardship after hardship…and maybe that’s the partially the point of the book. Real life is no fairy tale. One confusing part of the story is each character’s chapter starts with a year, but even though the beginning of the book starts in the 90s, the narrative is discussing things which happened in the 2000s; talking about things which are happening and things which haven’t happened yet all in the same chapter “year”makes it a bit confusing to understand where you are in the story.

Story and narration

If you have ever spent times in the islands seeing there is this parallel experience this book will speak to you of that experience. Such a special place with an enchanting lure. The narration will take you right to Ala Moana park on a Friday evening. Magical.

Good story w diff narrators for diff characters

Excellent character study of a Hawaiian family living on the edge of material poverty. The sacrifices made by the parents and the children have a gift-of-the-magi quality as the children leave Hawaii to "make it big" on the mainland, only to lose their sense of self. Underneath it all is a connection to the primal nature of Hawaii and the Hawaiian gods that the characters can still sense, if they allow themselves to be open.

Each character--the father, the mother, and the three children--has their own arc and personality, wonderfully crafted by the author so it all fits together into one conflicted whole--because what family is without conflict? The writing is masterful, with each chapter dedicated to giving the reader the point of view of one of the characters. This is particularly effective in the audio book, where different actors read the parts of the different characters, with what I assume to be authentic Hawaiian accents.