House of many gods: a novel - Davenport, Kiana
Summary: Working with the injured following a hurricane on the island of Kauai, Ana, a physician abandoned by her mother and raised by native Hawaiian relatives, has an encounter with Niki, a Russian documentary filmmaker with his own turbulent past. - (Baker & Taylor)
Booklist Reviews
/*Starred Review*/ Ana Kapakahi, the abandoned child of an ambitious mother, is raised in a household of ruined vets and women without husbands. She nourishes her anger and resentment toward her mother into adulthood, while in medical school, and during a bout with breast cancer, rebuffing every effort at reconciliation. Ana and her beloved cousin Lopaka--a returned Vietnam vet--are the first of their generation to attend college, promising to brighten the economic prospects for their large, unruly family even as their native Hawaiian paradise is threatened by nuclear testing. During a hurricane on the island of Kauai, Ana meets Niki, a Russian documentary filmmaker, and her perspective on the world, as seen from her tiny island and her close-knit community, changes drastically. They are two profoundly injured people from polar-opposite backgrounds, but their appreciation for the sanctity of the earth and the importance of culture to individual identity forms a powerful attraction. Davenport, author of the critically acclaimed Song of the Exile (1999), again works magic with evocative descriptions of place--lush Hawaii and frigid Russia--and poignant portraits of humans with all their flaws. ((Reviewed December 15, 2005)) Copyright 2005 Booklist Reviews.
