Sharks in the Time of Saviors

With prose that can be breathy and sweaty in one paragraph before gliding softly and tenderly into the next, this passionate writer cries out for us to see Hawaii in its totality: as a place of proud ancestors and gods and spirits, but also of crumbling families and hopelessness and poverty. Of mystery and beauty at every corner.
--IMBOLO MBUE, The New York Times Book Review

"Washburn's buzzy debut novel explores the shifting bonds of family and the inescapable pull of home."
--JOUMANA KHATIB, The New York Times Book Review

"Sweeping, effervescent . . . One of the primary delights of this novel is the singular voice that Washburn creates for each of his narrators. He writes with verve and laces their language with wit and Hawaiicisms . . . This novel graces the reader with the spirit of Hawaii, from its fragrant forests to its cultural traditions, and feels, despite its undercurrent of sadness, like a dose of tropical sun."
--JENNY SHANK, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Washburn's standout debut provides a vivid portrait of Hawaiian identity, mythology, and diaspora . . . a unique and spirited depiction of the 50th state and its children."
--Publisher's Weekly

"Sharks in the Time of Saviors is the novel you never knew you were waiting for. 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

"Sharks in the Time of Saviors bursts with life. It is bright and beautifully noisy. It's so good it hurts and hurts to where it heals. It is revelatory and unputdownable. Washburn is an extraordinarily brilliant new talent. This family saga is shark tooth sharp. Its pages shoot off crackles and sparks, and you come out of it changed. It is sublime."
--TOMMY ORANGE, author of There There

Sharks in the Time of Saviours is a brilliant novel and one of the most engaging and memorable books I've read this year. Sentences sparkle, the narrative voices remain distinctive and complete, and the deep notes of magic sound under the realism of poverty and loss. I didn't want it to end.
--SARAH MOSS, author of Ghost Wall

Sharks in the Time of Saviours is a story of trauma passed down through the generations, of how poverty, grief, and broken dreams weave their way through the lives of one family. Yet it is a story told with joy, even humour, in lyrical, hypnotic prose that will stay with you long after you turn the last page.
--TAHMIMA ANAM, author of A Golden Age

"Sharks in the Time of Saviors is a lush, virtuosic novel with breathless scope and lasting depth. Kawai Strong Washburn's vision is searing, his talent explosive, his heart beating loud and proud on every page."
--CLAIRE VAYE WATKINS, author of Gold Fame Citrus

"Sharks in the Time of Saviors is the story of a family, a people, and a legend, all wrapped in one. Faith and grief, rage and love, this book pulses with all of it. Kawai Strong Washburn makes his debut with a wealth of talent and a true artist's eye."
--VICTOR LAVALLE, author of The Changeling

"How do we confront our own deepest mysteries? Kawai Strong Washburn's Sharks in the Time of Saviors is a feverish, booming orchestra of a novel that leaps off the cliff's edge into a world of delirious strangeness, fury, and hope. Read it for its tour de force storytelling. Read it because it is, quite simply, endlessly, mesmerizing."
--PAUL YOON, author of Snow Hunters

"Kawai Strong Washburn has written one of the finest debut novels I've read in years, a story about the resilience of family and resilience of home--a story at once lucid, original and transcendent. There is something of a Denis Johnson quality to Washburn's writing, the way every sentence dances, moves in unexpected ways. Sharks in the Time of Saviors is a piece of magic."
--OMAR EL AKKAD, author of American War

"Kawai Strong Washburn has written the great Hawaiian novel. He is a virtuoso who will dizzy and enchant you with sentences that are crazy lyrical but never distract from the raw, comic, devastating, loving familial magic that is the heart of the book. Sharks in the Time of Saviors is a volcanic powerhouse of a debut."
--BENJAMIN PERCY, author of Red Moon