Synopsis:
The attack on Pearl Harbor changes everything for Lana Hitchcock, and sets off a period in American history full of suspicion and peril. Arriving back home on the Big Island of Hawaii, she finds she is too late to reconcile with her estranged father. She is left alone to untangle his legacy and, in the process, led to a secret property tucked away in the remote rain forest of Kilauea volcano.
When the U.S. government takes her father’s German-born neighbors into custody as suspected sympathizers, Lana shelters their two young girls: Marie, aged thirteen, and eight-year-old Coco. She is also reunited with her father’s longtime friend, Mochi, a wise and quietly heroic Japanese fisherman, and meets his adopted son, Benji.
As tensions escalate, the group is forced to flee Hilo — only to discover the hideaway house her father left her is not what she expected.
When a detainment camp is established nearby, Lana struggles to keep the secrets of those in her care, but trusting could have dangerous consequences. Their lives are woven together and, as they struggle to survive, Lana begins to understand the true meaning of family and how the bonds of love carry us through the worst times.
Red Sky Over Hawaii is an emotionally rich story of a woman who puts her freedom, safety, and heart on the line when she becomes the unexpected guardian of a misfit group with whom she hides in a secret home on Kilauea Volcano. It’s also a lush and poignant tale about the indisputable power of doing the right thing against all odds.
Review:
There are eight Hawaiian islands, seven of which are inhabited. Hawaii, known as the Big Island, is the largest island in the United States. The capital, Hilo, is situated on the rainy windward (East) side of the Island, a mere 210 miles (by air) from Honolulu. The December 7, 1941, attack on Honolulu, where the U.S. fleet was situated, drew the United States into World War II and has inspired volumes of historical fiction set in and around that city. However, the other islands were also in danger. Japanese submarines were spotted in the area and, in fact, both Maui and Kaua’i were the targets of smaller-scale attacks.
Sara Ackerman, a native Hawaiian, is the author of two previous novels: Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers, set on the Big Island, and The Lieutenant’s Nurse, set in Honolulu. Ackerman studied journalism, earned graduate degrees in psychology and Chinese medicine, and worked as a high school counselor and teacher on Oahu’s north shore prior to practicing acupuncture. She began writing her first novel in 2012, and freely blames the beautiful state of Hawaii for her addiction to writing. The island paradise is replete with rich, untapped stories.
Ackerman’s inspiration for Red Sky Over Hawaii was two-fold. First, she notes that the setting for the story, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, is one of her favorite places due to its “vast and unearthly beauty . . . unique rain forest and ecosystem.” Several years ago, while exploring the backcountry and lava flow, she happened upon a rustic old house tucked away in a remote part of the park. She was instantly intrigued, and when she learned the home was originally constructed in 1941 as a hideaway house in case the Japanese invaded the Big Island, Ackerman says she “knew I would write a book about it someday.” About a year later she learned of a woman whose parents were held by the FBI for over a year following the attack on Pearl Harbor — because they were German. Ackerman set out to meld the two ideas into a story focused on “how ordinary people band together during crises, and . . . the human capacity for resilience, . . .”
Red Sky Over Hawaii opens with Lana Hitchcock racing from Hilo to Volcano on December 8, 1941, with two young girls — Marie and Coco — in tow, along with two geese and a Great Dane named Sailor. Two more passengers are concealed in the back of her vehicle, and she’s terrified they will be discovered by the officers stationed at the checkpoint near the entrance to the park, situated not far from Kilauea military camp. Fortunately, she convinces them to let her and the girls be on their way, and they eventually find the house she has just learned her father left her. Lana and her father were estranged for a number of years, but when he called three days earlier to tell her he was dying, she rushed to see him. She had long desired a reconciliation, and believed that eventually she and her father would make amends. Tragically, however, Lana arrives at the hospital too late.
Lana journeys on to her father’s house where she meets his German neighbors, Ingrid and Fred Wagner, and their daughters. From them, she learns that her father, the gregarious Jack Spalding, sold the house to them, explaining that he needed the money for a project and Lana had no interest in keeping the property. Jack had been spending weeks at a time away from home. Following clues he left her, Lana discovers she has inherited a house in Volcano. Her father’s cryptic message — “When the time comes, all are welcome” — only begins to make sense the following day as she and the Wagners listen in shocked silence to radio reports that enemy planes are attacking Pearl Harbor. “We are under attack echoed around the room.” The announcer continues, “I repeat, we are under attack by enemy planes. The mark of the rising sun has been seen on these planes. Many of you have been asking if this is a maneuver. This is not a maneuver. This is the real McCoy.” Clearly, Lana cannot return to Honolulu and her unfaithful husband, Buck, with whom she has been unable to have the child she longs for. It was only 9:05 a.m., but “[o]ver Sunday morning breakfast, the world had up and gone to war.” The Wagners know they will immediately come under suspicion because of the alliance between Germany and Japan, even though they fled Germany to escape Hitler’s rule. Sure enough, later that day two FBI agents take the Wagners into custody for questioning, so Lana agrees to watch over Marie and Coco, naively hopeful that their parents will be released in a few hours. That does not happen, of course, but Mr. London, one of Fred’s business associates arrives, claiming he was appointed by Fred to watch over the girls and the Wagners’ business interests. It is apparent to Lana that he is not a suitable guardian for two young girls.
So Lana gathers up her charges, and they make the treacherous trip to Volcano. Once they locate her father’s hideaway house, they work together to make it inhabitable. Their futures are uncertain — the war has literally just begun and no one knows how long it will last or how the world will have been changed by the time it is over. Hawaii remains vulnerable and endangered, so residents must comply with orders dictating movement about the island and a curfew. With trade routes cut off and supplies being redirected to the troops, food staples are quickly in short supply, and for the first time in her life, Lana is afraid of not having enough to eat. Fear and distrust threaten the previously peaceful way of life on the islands among diverse people. Not only are the Wagners still being held against their will because of their German births. Japanese residents are taken into custody because of concerns about their loyalty. Lana is determined to keep Mochi and Benji safe, hidden away at her father’s house where. hopefully, the local authorities won’t discover them. Lana risks her own freedom and safety to ensure that Marie and Coco are not returned to Hilo in the dubious care of the unscrupulous Mr. London.
As the days pass and Christmas approaches, Ackerman’s characters learn to trust and depend upon each other. Lana becomes acquainted with Major Grant Bailey, who met her father on the golf course and grew close to him over the course of the prior year. Grant is a cowboy from Wyoming who is equally at home atop a horse as with people. He is also in charge of Ki’lauea Military Camp which is being converted to a detention center. As Lana and Grant grow closer, she questions whether she can be entirely forthcoming with him about the composition of her newly-established household, as well as the events in her past that fractured her relationship with her father.
Lana also grows close to Marie and Coco, the little girl with special gifts who loves animals, especially the two geese (Gin and Tonic) and her beloved Sailor. Ackerman is an animal lover who has featured animals in her previous novels. She decided to include Sailor in the book in honor of a Great Dane she discovered on Instagram. With the blessing of the real Sailor’s owner, Ackerman made her “a kind of side-kick who helps young Coco deal with all of her fear and anxiety over her parents being taken away.”
Matching anger with hatred never helped anyone.
Ackerman’s affection for both her subject matter and characters is evident in the thoughtful, compassionate way she tells an engrossing story about what it means to create and be part of a family in the face of adversity. The Big Island is as much a character in the book as its human counterparts. Ackerman’s descriptive, evocative prose transports readers to the remote hideaway; the lava fields where Lana and the girls visit her Auntie, a kapuna (elder); and the little town of Volcano where the elderly Mrs. Kano and her granddaughter, Iris, operate the Kano Store — past which government vehicles roll through town bringing troops and prisoners to the nearby detention facility. The powerful Ki’lauea volcano, home of Madame Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire, serves as a forceful metaphor for the turbulent days Lana and the other are living through.
Ackerman convincingly depicts Lana “at one of those difficult crossroads in life, where everything seems to fall apart at once.” She is disappointed about her failed marriage and regrets that she did not heal her relationship with her father while she still had time. She accepts responsibility for her part in their separation, as she mourns him and strives to discern what he wanted her to know. Her commitment to the girls and concern for her father’s dear friend, Mochi, as well as young Benji, fuel her determination. Her outrage and dismay at how quickly her fellow Hawaiians are viewed with suspicion and deprived of their rights is palpable and believable, as is the fear and trepidation that all of the characters experience. As soon as they learn of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Lana instantly recognizes that “[n]othing will ever be the same” and her anger is credible. So are her burgeoning feelings for Grant and hesitation to act on them, in light of the duties he is charged with carrying out and obligation to comply with orders from his superiors. Empowered, yet vulnerable, Lana is principled and refuses to yield her loyalty to those she has gathered around her, but Mochi reminds her that people who are not raised in Hawaii do no understand its ways and urges her to teach Grant.
Two particular aspects of Ackerman’s writing distinguish Red Sky Over Hawaii from other historical fiction set during World War II. The first is her depiction of the varying ways the characters react to the circumstances in which they find themselves, and the strong relationships that evolve in a short period of time. Thrown together by events beyond their imagining or control, they become an empathetic, cohesive unit in spite of their differences.
The second is the character who truly embodies the heart and soul of Ackerman’s story. Coco is a stubborn little girl, devastated by being separated from her parents, especially her mother. Ingrid has always been Coco’s defender, the one who understands and protects her, including from the other children at school who don’t understand how special she is. Coco can charm animals and has the gift of seeing things others can’t. She senses when events are about to take place because she observes a crack in the sky and “sometimes I find things out when I see it,” she explains. When Lana looks to the sky for signs of it, Coca sternly tells her she won’t be able to see it “because you don’t believe, not really. . . [in] magic.” But that’s not true. Lana relates to and connects with Coco because Lana too has also always had a sense of knowing when a disaster is on the way — just as she did as she frantically made her way to Hilo the day before the attack. “Some kind of magic that was,” she laments. Lana recognizes that Coco is not like other children, and lovingly does everything she can to ensure that Coco is permitted to be her authentic self. Through characters like Auntie, a deeply spiritual woman, Ackerman educates readers about Hawaiian culture, and the sacred connections to the land and beliefs of her people. Lana observes that she respects “the ancient Hawaiian myths as stories to make sense of the world around them.”
Red Sky Over Hawaii is a captivating, mesmerizing, and moving tale about a time in American history when ordinary people refused to succumb to distrust and wariness even in the face of a calculated, vicious attack. Ackerman examines the dark and disturbing aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and depicts characters who are resilient, determined, and come together to support and care for each in the face of prejudice and divisiveness. Her injection of elements of magical realism into the story make it even more entertaining, charming, and touching. Red Sky Over Hawaii is a delight, especially for historical fiction fans, but a must-read for anyone who enjoys an uplifting and engrossing exploration of forgiveness, what it means to be part of a family, and the myriad ways in which, as Mochi teaches Lana, “all life is interconnected.”
Excerpt from Red Sky Over Hawaii
December 8, 1941WITH EVERY MILE CLOSER TO VOLCANO, THE FOG thickened, until they were driving through a forest of white gauze with the occasional branch showing through. Lana considered turning the truck around no less than forty-six times. Going back to Hilo would have been the prudent thing to do, but this was not a time for prudence. Of that she was sure. She slowed the Chevy to a crawl and checked the rearview mirror. The cage with the geese was now invisible, and she could barely make out the dog’s big black spots.Maybe the fog would be to their advantage.“I don’t like it here at all,” said Coco, who was smashed up next to Lana, scrawny arms folded in protest. The child had to almost yell to be heard above the chug of the motor.
Lana grabbed a blanket from the floor. “Put this over you. It should help.”
Coco shook her head. “I’m not cold. I want to go home. Can you please take us back?”
Goose bumps had formed up and down her limbs, but she was so stubborn that she had refused to put on a jacket. True, Hilo was insufferably hot, but where they were headed—four thousand feet up the mountain—the air was cold and damp and flimsy.
It had been over ten years since Lana had set foot at K?¯lauea. Never would she have guessed to be returning under these circumstances.
Marie chimed in. “We can’t go back now, sis. And anyway, there’s no one to go back to at the moment.”
Poor Coco trembled. Lana wished she could hug the girl and tell her everything was going to be okay. But that would be a lie. Things were liable to get a whole lot worse before they got any better.
“Sorry, honey. I wish things were different, but right now you two are my priority. Once we get to the house, we can make a plan,” Lana said.
“But you don’t even know where it is,” Coco whined.
“I have a good idea.”
More like a vague notion.
“What if we don’t find it by dark? Are they going to shoot us?” Coco said.
Marie put her arm around Coco and pulled her in. “Turn off that little overactive imagination of yours. No one is going to shoot us,” she said, but threw a questioning glance Lana’s way.
“We’ll be fine,” Lana said, wishing she believed that.
The girls were not the real problem here. Of greater concern was what they had hidden in the back of the truck. Curfew was six o’clock, but people had been ordered to stay off the roads unless their travel was essential to the war. Lana hadn’t told the girls that. Driving up here was a huge risk, but she had invented a story she hoped and prayed would let them get through if anyone stopped them. The thought of a checkpoint caused her palms to break out in sweat, despite the icy air blowing in through the cracks in the floorboard.
On a good day, the road from Hilo to Volcano would take about an hour and a half. Today was not a good day. Every so often they hit a rut the size of a whiskey barrel that bounced her head straight into the roof. The continuous drizzle of the rain forest had undermined all attempts at smooth roads here. At times the ride was reminiscent of the plane ride from Honolulu. Exactly two days ago, but felt more like a lifetime.
Lana’s main worry was what they would encounter once in the vicinity of the national park entrance. With the K?¯lauea military camp nearby, there were bound to be soldiers and roadblocks in the area. She had so many questions for her father and felt a mixed ache of sadness and resentment that he was not here to answer them. How were you so sure the Japanese were coming? Why the volcano, of all places? How are we going to survive up here? Why didn’t you call me sooner?
Coco seemed to settle down, leaning her nut-brown ringlets against her sister’s shoulder and closing her eyes. There was something comforting in the roar of the engine and the jostle of the truck. With the whiteout it was hard to tell where they were, but by all estimates they should be arriving soon.
Lana was dreaming of a cup of hot coffee when Coco sat upright and said, “I have to go tinkle.”
“Tinkle?” Lana asked.
Marie said, “She means she has to go to the bathroom.”
They drove until they found a grassy shoulder, and Lana pulled the truck aside, though they could have stopped in the middle of the road. They had met only one other vehicle the whole way, a police car that fortunately had passed by.
The rain had let up, and they all climbed out. It was like walking through a cloud, and the air smelled metallic and faintly lemony from the eucalyptus that lined the road. Lana went to check on Sailor. The dog stood up and whined, yanking on the rope around her neck, straining to be pet. Poor thing was drenched and shaking. Lana had wanted to leave her behind with a neighbor, but Coco had put up such a fuss, throwing herself onto her bed and wailing and punching the pillow, that Lana relented. Caring for the girls would be hard enough, but a hundred-and-twenty-pound dog?
“Just a bathroom stop. Is everyone okay back here?” she asked in a hushed voice. Two low grunts came from under the tarp. “We should be there soon. Remember, be still and don’t make a sound if we stop again.”
As if on cue, one of the hidden passengers started a coughing fit, shaking the whole tarp. She wondered how wise it was to subject him to this long and chilly ride, and if it might be the death of him. But the alternative was worse.
“Deep breaths…you can do it,” Lana said.
Coco showed up and hopped onto the back tire. “I think we should put Sailor inside with us. She looks miserable.”
“Whose lap do you propose she sits on?” Lana said.
Sailor was as tall as a small horse, but half as wide.
“I can sit in the back of the truck and she can come up here, then,” Coco said in all seriousness.
“Not in those clothes you won’t. We don’t need you catching pneumonia on us.”
They started off again, and ten seconds down the road, Sailor started howling at the top of her lungs. Lana felt herself on the verge of unraveling. The last thing they needed was one extra ounce of attention. The whole idea of coming up here was preposterous when she thought about it. At the time it had seemed like a good idea, but now she wondered at her sanity.
“What is wrong with that dog?” Lana said, annoyed.
Coco turned around, and Lana felt her hot breath against her arm. In the smallest of voices, she said, “Sailor is scared.”
Lana felt her heart crack. “Oh, honey, we’re all a bit scared.
It’s perfectly normal under the circumstances. But I promise you this –I will do everything in my power to keep you out of harm’s way.”
“But you hardly know us,” Coco said.
“My father knew you, and you knew him, right?” Lana said. “And remember, if anyone asks, we tell them our story.”
They had rehearsed it many times already, but with kids one could never be sure. Not that Lana had much experience with kids.
With none of her own and no nieces or nephews in the islands, she felt the lack palpably, smack in the center of her chest. There had been a time when she saw children in her future, but that dream had come and gone and left her sitting on the curb with a jarful of tears.
Her mind immediately went to Buck. Strange how your future with a person could veer so far off course from how you’d originally pictured it. How the one person you swore you would have and hold could end up wreaking havoc on your heart instead. She blinked the thought away.
As they neared Volcano, the fog remained like a curtain, but the air around them brightened. Lana knew from all her time up here as a young girl that the trees got smaller as the elevation rose, and the terrain changed from towering eucalyptus and fields of yellow-and-white ginger to a more cindery terrain covered with red-blossomed ‘ohi‘a trees, and prehistoriclooking ha¯pu’u ferns and the crawling uluhe. At one time in her life, this had been one of her happiest places. Coco reached for the letter on the dashboard and began reading it for the fourth time. “Coco Hitchcock. It sounds funny.” The paper was already getting worn.
Marie swiped it out of her hands. “You’re going to ruin that. Give it to me.”
Where Coco was whip thin and dark and spirited—a nice way of putting it — Marie was blonde and full-bodied and sweet as coconut taffy. But Lana could tell even Marie’s patience was wearing thin.
“Mrs. Hitchcock said we need to memorize our new names or we’ll be shot.”
Lana said as calmly as she could, “I never said anything of the sort. And, Coco, you have to get used to calling me Aunt Lana for now. Both of you do.”
“And stop talking about getting shot,” Marie added, rolling her eyes.
If they could all just hold it together a little bit longer.
There was sweat pooling between her breasts and behind her kneecaps. Lying was not her strong suit, and she was hoping that, by some strange miracle, they could sail on through without anyone stopping them. She rolled her window down a couple of inches for a burst of fresh air. “We’re just about here. So if we get stopped, let me do the talking. Speak only if someone asks you a direct question, okay?”
Neither girl said anything; they both just nodded. Lana could almost see the fear condensing on the windshield. And pretty soon little Coco started sniffling. Lana would have said something to comfort her, but her mind was void of words. Next the sniffles turned into heaving sobs big enough to break the poor girl in half. Marie rubbed her hand up and down Coco’s back in a warm, smooth circle.
“You can cry when we get there, but no tears now,” she said.
Tears and snot were smeared across Coco’s face in one big shiny layer. “But they might kill Mama and Papa.” Her face was pinched and twisted into such anguish that Lana had to fight back a sob of her own.
Excerpted from Red Sky Over Hawaii by Sara Ackerman, Copyright © 2020 by Sara Sckerman. Published by MIRA Books. All rights reserved.
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