Finished: Sharks in the Time of Saviors (Washburn) Beautifully written story about a Hawaiian family who barely makes ends meet, but has a very close bond with each other and a very spiritual bond with the island they live on. Father, Augie, Mother, Kalia, oldest son, Dean, second son, Nainoa, and youngest daughter, Kaui are at a crossroads when the sugar cane factory Augie works at closes down and they must ask his uncle in the "city", Honolulu, for work. Before the life-changing move, Augie takes them on one of the tourist boats for one more day of family fun. During the boat trip seven year old Nainoa falls overboard. He is bobbing in the water as the boat gets further away, nine year old Dean struggling with his father to let him jump in, and Kalia, shoving four year old Kaui into a stranger's arms as she DOES jump in. As the captain turns the boat around, Kalia realizes she'll never get to Nainoa in time, as she watches him go under and not resurface. Suddenly, four sharks swimming together pass under her and towards Nainoa's location. Kalia is struck with fear and envisions the water turning the awful red of a shark attack, but to everyone's amazement, one of the sharks surfaces with Nainoa cradled gently in it's mouth. The shark swims past Kalia and back to the boat where Augie pulls his son aboard. The shark has saved Nainoa. Since he was a baby, animals have flocked to Nainoa, encircling him as if they are protecting him, as if he is special, but never like this. The story of the sharks and Nainoa spreads, and when Noa, as he is known, subsequently grabs the severely burned hand of one of Dean's friends and it heals, then Noa becomes a much sought after child. He is now the special one with more of a connection to the gods and land than anyone could imagine. He sees people who come for healing, but as we find out later, it rarely works again for the islanders. Dean and Kaui grow up in the extreme shadow of Noa's light, trying their hardest to be noticed by their parents. Their parents love them, but most of the family focus is on Noa's amazing abilities and his brilliance at school. Kaui excels at school as well, and Dean excels at basketball, but try as they might, they never feel as if their parents love them as much. Noa can't handle the pressure that is placed on him, especially when he feels like he's supposed to be doing more than just helping people in the neighborhood. He feels the calling so strongly, but feels that he is being called to "fix" the entire island of Hawaii, where they first lived. Fourteen years later, Noa lives in Portland as a paramedic, Dean has a scholarship to play basketball in Washington state, and Kaui has just begun studying at a university in San Diego to become an engineer. (Turns out she was truly the smartest one in the family!) They try to stay in touch by calling, but many of the old resentments between the siblings still exist. Their lives take turns that none of them expect. Noa can often feel a person's lifeblood and feel himself helping to heal them as he cares for people in emergencies. He still feels he has a much larger purpose, but doesn't know what it is. Dean has been kicked off the team for getting into partying and having an attitude, and his life goes downhill. And, Kaui, still the top of her class in everything, gets into drugs and climbing the shells of empty buildings, and discovers that she loves her female roommate. One day when Noa is called to the scene of a car accident involving a 36 weeks pregnant woman, he feels certain that by laying hands on her he can bring both the baby and the mother back, but he fails. He cannot get over the loss and gives up his job and goes back home. He's got to find out what more he is supposed to do, what the gods want of him, and how deeply he is supposed to be connected to the island. When tragedy strikes, the remaining family members, all try to find their true purpose back in Hawaii. You really grow to feel for each of these characters and to feel the essence of Hawaii. It's hard to just lay out a plot and not talk about the beautiful, spiritual sense of the book as well. It's just one you'll have to read to see what I mean. There is one passage that I really loved from the beautiful prose of this book. :-)

"How long was I stupid enough to believe we were indestructible? But that's the problem with the present, it's never the thing you're holding, only the thing you're watching, later, from a distance so great the memory might as well be a spill of stars outside a window at twilight."