Helen Plum Library

The powerful debut novel from Alan Brennert, Moloka'i tells the story of Rachel Kalama, a seven-year-old Hawaiian girl who contracts leprosy and is quarantined on the island of Moloka'i during the 1890s. Separated from her family and forced to grow up in the leper colony of Kalaupapa, Rachel experiences intense isolation. But she remains strong, finding moments of joy, and even love. Rich in Hawaiian history, this novel proves itself a stellar piece...

In this wickedly satiric romp, Paul Theroux captures the essence of Hawaii as it has never been depicted. The novel's narrator, a down-on-his-luck writer, escapes to Waikiki and soon finds himself the manager of the Hotel Honolulu, a low-rent establishment a few blocks off the beach. Honeymooners, vacationers, wanderers, mythomaniacs, soldiers, and families all check in to the hotel. Like the Canterbury pilgrims, every guest has come in search of...

Syd, a breathtakingly beautiful supermodel on a photo shoot in Hawaii, disappears and LA Times reporter Ben Hawkins, hoping to help the victim and get an idea for his next bestseller, gets a shocking visit that pushes him into an impossible-to-resist deal with the devil in this heart-pounding story of beauty and murder

Inspired by the real women of the Women's Air Raid Defense, this extraordinary novel follows Daisy Wilder as she, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, enlists in a top secret program for civilians in the military, which takes her to wartime Hawaii where she finds love, courage, strength, and sisterhood In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Daisy Wilder enlists in a top secret program, replacing male soldiers in a war zone for the first time. Under fear...

"From legendary writer Paul Theroux comes an atmospheric novel following a big-wave surfer as he confronts aging, privilege, mortality, and whose lives we choose to remember"--

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Women of the Silk and The Samurai's Garden comes a gorgeous and evocative historical novel about a Japanese-American family set against the backdrop of Hawai'i's sugar plantations. Daniel Abe, a young doctor in Chicago, is finally coming back to Hawai'i. He has his own reason for returning to his childhood home, but it is not to revisit the past, unlike his Uncle Koji. Koji lives with the memories of...

When Harper Proulx and her newfound sibling travel to Hawaii to track down their sperm donor father, the man she discovers--a deep-sea diver obsessed with solving the mystery of a shipwreck--forces Harper to face some even bigger questions

In 1947, photographer and war correspondent Janey Everett arrives at a remote surfing village on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to research a planned biography of forgotten aviation pioneer Sam Mallory, who joined the loyalist forces in the Spanish Civil War and never returned. Obsessed with Sam's fate, Janey has tracked down Irene Lindquist, the owner of a local island-hopping airline, whom she believes might actually be the legendary Irene Foster,...

"Meet Kanani Akina. When Kanani's cousin Rachel comes to stay for a month, Kanani can't wait to show her what life is like in a friendly Hawaiian town--from eating shave ice to snorkeling with sea turtles. But Rachel seems homesick and unhappy. Kanani tries hard to help Rachel feel at home and have fun, but nothing seems to work-- until an urgent animal rescue on the beach brings the girls together."--P. [4] of cover

The second daughter of a royal chief, Maile will be permitted to marry for love. Her fiancé is the best navigator in Hawai'i, and he taught her how to feel the ocean, observe the winds, read the stars, and how to love. When sailors from a strange place called England arrive on her island, a misunderstanding ends in battle. Maile is widowed before she is wed. In the middle of the battle, Maile takes John Harbottle, the wounded man who killed her fiancé,...