About this title: When Rachel is just 5 years old, in the 1890s, and living in Honolulu with her family, she is diagnosed with leprosy and sent to a hospital at the Kalaupapa Leper Colony on the island of Moloka'i. Over the years, as the disease is treated (a cure is finally found in 1940), Rachel loses contact with her family, marries a fellow patient, has a daughter she is forced to give up for adoption because of her contagious condition, and is left a widow when her husband is murdered. In her later years, she returns to Honolulu to find what remains of her family and her memories.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: Ninth Printing
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, New York
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780312304355ISBN:0312304358
Description: Good with no dust jacket. 9780312304355. 1 x 8 x 5.4 Inches; 389 pages; Soft Cover Paperback, No Dust Jacket, Shows Little Wear. read more
Description: Acceptable. Ships from the UK. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Your purchase also supports literacy charities. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780312304355ISBN:0312304358
Description: Good. Used Condition-GOOD can be a well cared for Book that is in great condition to a Book that may show some signs of wear. GOOD Books sometimes are permanently marked; have some spine or page creases; exibit signs of aging or an ExLibrary copy. ** Sometimes grease pencil or permanent marking on cover. May contain limited notes and or highlighting. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases. ** SHIPS FROM USA-Domestic Delivery takes 5-14 days ** read more
Edition: Later Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, New York, NY
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780312304355ISBN:0312304358
Description: Good- Pages yellowed. Binding tight. Edgewear with peeling laminate. Corners lightly dented and starting to split. Covers scuffed. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Date Published: 2004-10-04
ISBN-13:9780312304355ISBN:0312304358
Description: Fair. Paperback. Dirty page edges. Book is well read but remains a good reading copy with all of the pages and binding intact. The spine has bends and the cover has wear from reading including rubbing and bends. May have writing or highlighting. Quick response. read more
Edition: Twelfth Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780312304355ISBN:0312304358
Description: Good. Brief summary of content available upon request by e-mail. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: St Martins Pr
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780312304355ISBN:0312304358
Description: New. This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai'i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place---and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian gir... read more
"Set in the rich landscape of the Hawaiian Islands at the turn of the century during the big leprosy epidemic, this story chronicles the life of a woman named Rachel, who at the age of seven much to her families horror finds some sores that won't heal forming on her leg and foot. As hard as her mother tries to hide the sores from the board of health Rachel is eventually found out and is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i.
With so little known about the disease at the time people with a family memmber that had leprosy got the stigma of being "dirty". Their homes were quarantined and the community shunned them. Being a culture so steeped with pride it became very difficult for Rachel's family to be shamed and shunned so the family moved and started a new life where no one knew them leaving Rachel with no forwarding information, alone, scared and abandoned with the lepers on the island.
Rachel lives her life out on the island, enduring loss, finding love, and learning about the human condition. Her story is so gripping that through the pages you will laugh, cry, get angry, and rejoice with her.
Although this is a work of fiction the author went to great lengths to stick to the truth of the horrors of the disease and the disgusting way these human beings were treated by the bureaucracy. The settlement is real and some of the characters mentioned in the book were actual people that lived and worked in the colony.
"I truly loved this book and read it in 3 days. I feel that the author so captured the time period well. It is a hearbreadking story of love and loss and what being a family truly means. It shows in great detail what ones Ohana is and that often it isn't your blood relations.Rachel found hers in so many of those that she lived around.It also shows that a mother and fathers love never dies.It also shows how hatred and prejudice can breed violence and have very lifechanging results.
Rachel despite her disease exhibits the strength that we all should hope to have in the face of adversity.She thru this character shows that she isn't conquered by the disease but that she overcomes it I cried a several places in the story and it made me think about those today that society views as unclean. This story also makes me see how a chronic disease of any type affects not just the person but the whole family.
I think it fitting that the place she once saw as her prison is in fact the place she goes to to die .
"This book was a gift. It was so heart wrenching to witness 7yr-old Rachel's exile from her family to the Island of Moloka'i for contracting leprosy during a time when little was understood about the disease and for which there was no viable treatment. To make matters worse, it is her own sister's betrayal that gets Rachel arrested and sent away from her parents, her family and her childhood to this island of lepers. But surprisingly, with such a heavy subject, the book is not entirely sad. The story is marked with Rachel's triumph of spirit, body and mind-- in addition to her unbelievable strength and poise in the face of her darkest hours and the multiple betrayals she has to endure in order to finally find peace. There is so much redemption found in the story too. Because, let's face it-- if you are anything like me at all, you want to see the good in people-- even people who hurt you-- because we need to forgive them in order to move forward. So although some of the characters start out unlikeable, every one except for Rachel's neighbor, redeems themselves somehow-- even when it seems like it is too late for them. I was beyond moved by Rachel's story. I like a story that can upend me and then right me again."
"I really enjoyed this book. In fact I took a trip to Molokai to visit the leper colony after reading it. There are 22 lepers still living there and it was a very moving experience that I am really glad I had an opporturnity to take."
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