Moloka'i

This powerful debut from Alan Brennert is a touching tale of human struggle and perseverance that’s been hailed as a “dazzling historical novel” by the Washington Post. Set in Hawaii in the 1890s, Moloka’i is about finding hope, and even love, in unexpected places.

Rachel Kalama is a seven-year-old Hawaiian girl who contracts leprosy and is quarantined on the island of Moloka’i. Separated from her family and forced to grow up in the leper colony of Kalaupapa, Rachel experiences the pain of total isolation. But out of this despair Rachel forges new bonds of friendship, and even comes to know the joys of love with Kenji Utagawa, a Japanese boy cast out from his own family.