A Legacy of Bones

February 1, 2023

Maritime history writer Burgess's (Fogland Point; Dark Currents) latest novel has a promising premise. About 15 miles off the coast of Kona lies a fictional island, the smallest and least populated of the Hawaiian archipelago. Once it was inhabited only by fishermen who dubbed it Kaumaha ("Misery Island"), due to a series of earthquakes, tsunamis, and disease; they later abandoned the place. In 1847, King Kamehameha sells the island to Rev. Amyas Lathrop and his wife, who aim to minister to the remaining population. During their tenure on the island, a magnificent statue is erected to honor Lathrop. Several decades later the statute is destroyed, and the bodies of many small children are found interred underneath it, leaving the island in an uproar as the bodies are removed, consecrated, and buried properly. But that is only part of the mystery surrounding this tiny place with a very large and horrifying history. VERDICT Burgess's novel focuses on colonialism and the destructive effects of evangelization and industrialization on the Indigenous people of Hawai'i. The inhabitants of Kaumaha are intriguing, particularly one Mrs. Te Papa, who knows a great deal about the history of the island.--Jane Henriksen Baird

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