House of Many Gods: A Novel
by Kiana Davenport
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Description
From Kiana Davenport, the bestselling author of Song of the Exile and Shark Dialogues, comes another mesmerizing novel about her people and her islands. Told in spellbinding and mythic prose, House of Many Gods is a deeply complex and provocative love story set against the background of Hawaii and Russia. Interwoven throughout with the indelible portrait of a native Hawaiian family struggling against poverty, drug wars, and the increasing military occupation of their sacred lands. show more Progressing from the 1960s to the turbulent present, the novel begins on the island of O'ahu and centers on Ana, abandoned by her mother as a child. Raised by her extended family on the "lawless" Wai'anae coast, west of Honolulu, Ana, against all odds, becomes a physician. While tending victims of Hurricane 'Iniki on the neighboring island of Kaua'i, she meets Nikolai, a Russian filmmaker with a violent and tragic past, who can confront reality only through his unique prism of lies. Yet he is dedicated to recording the ecological horrors in his motherland and across the Pacific. As their lives slowly and inextricably intertwine, Ana and Nikolai's story becomes an odyssey that spans decades and sweeps the reader from rural Hawaii to the forbidding Arctic wastes of Russia; from the poverty-stricken Wai'anae coast to the glittering harshness of "new Moscow" and the haunting, faded beauty of St. Petersburg. With stunning narrative inventiveness, Davenport has created a timeless epic of loss and remembrance, of the search for family and identity, and, ultimately, of the redemptive power of love. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
this book was beautifully written. it follows two stories that gradually interweave. one about a native hawaiian family struggling with poverty, drugs, and unjust u.s. military practices in hawaii. the other about a boy growing up in post world war two russia.
much of the book was horribly depressing, as it dealt with the effects of nuclear testing on civilian populations. thinking of all the lives lost, genetic mutations, birth defects, and cancers caused by all of the nuclear fallout is really sickening and at times i had to stop reading the book because it was just too depressing. i just can't believe the things governments will do to their own people just for the sake of making a bomb.
but the writing was beautiful and the themes of show more love and forgiveness and family and culture outweighed the horrors of the other parts.
i think you should check it out. (if it helps, alice walker and isabel allende both praise kiana davenport on the back of this book) show less
much of the book was horribly depressing, as it dealt with the effects of nuclear testing on civilian populations. thinking of all the lives lost, genetic mutations, birth defects, and cancers caused by all of the nuclear fallout is really sickening and at times i had to stop reading the book because it was just too depressing. i just can't believe the things governments will do to their own people just for the sake of making a bomb.
but the writing was beautiful and the themes of show more love and forgiveness and family and culture outweighed the horrors of the other parts.
i think you should check it out. (if it helps, alice walker and isabel allende both praise kiana davenport on the back of this book) show less
enjoyable
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Author Information
11+ Works 855 Members
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance
- DDC/MDS
- 813.54 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PS3554 .A88 .H68 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1961-
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 130
- Popularity
- 250,495
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.61)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 1
