Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

[Cosima___J]

After going to grad school at University of Hawaii, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for things Hawaiian. I picked this book up at Barnes and Noble with no idea what it was about. The novel deals with a topic you might think would be a really depressing read, but you would be wrong!

The story begins in 1891 and tells the tale of Rachel Kalama, a 7 year old girl and a native Hawaiian who contracts leprosy (now know as Hansen's Disease). She is forcefully torn away from her family and shipped to the leprosarium which opened in 1866 on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i. At least her situation is better than the earliest victims of the disease who were dumped on the beach and left to die. But nevertheless it's a "prison" from which very few residents are ever allowed to leave. They were effectively quarantined from the rest of society surrounded by the ocean and cut off from the rest of the island by nearly impassable 2000 foot high cliffs.

The stigma against lepers is fierce and the families of those sent to Moloka'i are often shunned. Many thought the disease was a result of "unchastity" and "immorality" and the victims were called "those dirty people".

Young Rachel makes friends and enjoys surfing. But since she has a fairly mild form of leprosy, she lives to see many of those friends suffer the horrible progression of the disease and eventually die. She falls in love with another resident of the leprosarium and they marry. A baby daughter is born to the couple and they must make the wrenching decision to either keep the child and risk her getting leprosy or give the child up immediately for adoption.

Inspite of the tragedies detailed in the novel, there are many happy moments. It's an achingly beautiful story --- one that I can't get out of my mind