Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Summary

In 1995, off the coast of Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears the worst. But Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, making his story the stuff of legend.

Kawai Strong Washburn’s debut, Sharks in the Time of Saviors, follows Noa’s family as they struggle amid the collapsing sugarcane industry. They hail his rescue as a sign of the favor of ancient Hawaiian gods—a belief reinforced by Noa’s puzzling new abilities. But as time passes, this supposed divine favor drives the family apart: Noa, now working as a paramedic in gritty Oregon neighborhoods, attempts to fathom his expanding abilities; farther north, in Washington, his older brother, Dean, hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, becoming obsessed with wealth and fame; and in California, his risk-addicted younger sister, Kaui, navigates unforgiving academic and wilderness landscapes to forge her independence from the family’s legacy.

When supernatural events revisit the Flores household in Hawai’i—this time with tragic consequences—everyone must reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.