A JOURNEY OF FINDING
Kawai Strong Washburn’s debut novel is nothing less than sublime. Lucid, original and transcendent this potent novel published in April 2020, is set in 1995 on the Hawaiian island of Malia. The brilliance of this achingly beautiful piece of work is that for all the gorgeousness of its prose, its sharp observance of the rise and endless falls of being alive, and its honest exploration of the way expectations and reality rather cruelly never quite seem to meet, is that it is inherently an emotionally accessible piece of writing.
An impoverished family head out on a boat trip with their young children. In the blink of an eye, their seven-year old son Noa falls overboard. Panic-stricken they eventually locate the boy bobbing in the open ocean and, to their horror, a shiver of sharks are circling around him. Out of desperation, his mother dives in. What follows changes life, time, and our understanding of reality.
“The next time I went for air you were at the surface, sideways, prone and ragdolling in the mouth of a shark. But the shark was holding you gently do you understand? It was holding you like you were made of glass, like you were its child.”
His family, struggling to make ends meet amidst the collapse of the sugar cane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favour from ancient Hawaiian gods. But as time passes, this hope gives way to economic realities, forcing Noa and his siblings to seek salvation across the continental United States, leaving behind home and family. With a profound command of language, Washburn’s powerful debut novel examines what it means to be both of a place and a stranger in it. Like any human designated as a chosen one, Noa will eventually have to reveal his true nature to the masses he has come to save. Modern yet mystical, Sharks in the Time of Saviours is the story of faith, family, grief and love.
Reviewed by Caroline Rodger
