Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Novel (First edition)

Barnes & Noble Discover pick for March 2020 Amazon Editors' Pick for March 2020Sharks in the Time of Saviors is a groundbreaking debut novel that folds the legends of Hawaiian gods into an engrossing family saga; a story of exile and the pursuit of salvation from Kawai Strong Washburn."Old myths clash with new realities, love is in a ride or die with grief, faith rubs hard against magic, and comic flips with tragic so much they meld into something new.

All told with daredevil lyricism to burn. A ferocious debut."-MARLON JAMES, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf"So good it hurts and hurts to where it heals.

It is revelatory and unputdownable. Washburn is an extraordinarily brilliant new talent." -TOMMY ORANGE, author of There ThereIn 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean.

When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst.

But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends.Nainoa's family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods-a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities.

But as time passes, this supposed divine favor begins to drive the family apart: Nainoa, working now as a paramedic on the streets of Portland, struggles to fathom the full measure of his expanding abilities; further north in Washington, his older brother Dean hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, obsessed with wealth and fame; while in California, risk-obsessed younger sister Kaui navigates an unforgiving academic workload in an attempt to forge her independence from the family's legacy.When supernatural events revisit the Flores family in Hawai'i-with tragic consequences-they are all forced to reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.