Hawaii: A Novel

Description

Previously a bestselling hardcover and a perennial favourite in mass market paperback, HAWAII i is now available for the first time in a handsome readable trade paperback edition. The story of Hawaii, and of this book, is that of disparate peoples struggling to keep their identity and yet living with one another in harmony, ultimately joining together to build the strong and vital fiftieth US state. The Hawaiian islands remained undiscovered and untouched by man for countless centuries until the Polynesians, a little more than a thousand years ago, made the perilous journey to their new home. The Polynesians lived and flourished according to their ancient traditions and beliefs until, in the early nineteenth century, the American missionaries arrived, bringing with them a new creed and a new way of life. The impact of the coming of the missionaries had only begun to be absorbed when other national groups, with many different customs - notably the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Filipinos - began to migrate in great numbers to the islands.

Random House published James A Michener's first novel, THE FIRES OF SPRING in 1949, the same year the author was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC. Prior to becoming a writer, Michener had been an outstanding academic, and editor and a US Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific theatre during WW2. He is the author of international bestsellers such as Centennial, Caribbean, Texas, Alaska and Mexico. He died in 1997.

"A mammoth epic of the islands, a vast panorama, wonderful" Baltimore Sun