Daughter of Moloka'i

Summary

Honolulu, 1917. Standing on the porch was a tall, unfamiliar sister in a rain-soaked habit. She was holding a bundled child, its face tucked into her shoulder … “Her name is Ruth Utagawa,” Sister Catherine said, “and we’ve come from Kalaupapa.”

Infant Ruth arrives at the Kapi’olani Home for Girls after being taken from her mother, Rachel, who has spent most of her life quarantined at the isolated leprosy settlement of Kalaupapa.

Ruth is adopted by a Japanese couple who raise her on a strawberry and grape farm in California, and she later marries. But in the midst of World War II, her world is turned upside down as she and her family face internment at Manzanar Relocation Center. Then, one day after the war, Ruth receives an unexpected letter. The signature at the bottom reads, “Rachel Utagawa.”

This rich and spellbinding novel tells the story of the twenty-two-year-long relationship between two women who never expected to meet, much less come to love each other. For Ruth it is also a story of discovery, the unfolding of a past she knew nothing about.