Moloka'i

My husband bought this book for me after my first trip to India working with the leprosy afflicted.  

I loved it. 

 In this novel, Alan Brennert, did a great job exposing the stigma that clings to leprosy.

It was fascinating to see the main character, Rachel, try to fit into a world as the world was still learning about this disease.  

Finding friendship, peace and love had boundaries and restrictions.  

Anyone with a slight sign of leprosy was shipped out to an isolated island Moloka'i, until they pass a clean bill of health.  For most of them, Moloka'i was their life.

I admire people who choose what kind of life they are going to have.  

You can buy it here

Here is Amazon's book review:

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 girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here her life is supposed to end---but instead she discovers it is only just beginning.

With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka'i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death. Such is the warmth, humor, and compassion of this novel that "few readers will remain unchanged by Rachel's story" (mostlyfiction.com).