House of the Sun is a noir-tinged and bitingly humorous literary novel about identity and family set in New York and Hawai`i. Fresh out of prison, Maui returns to his old New York City neighborhood to collect his stash left with his dead sister’s mother-in-law. Upon arrival he discovers that not only is his stash missing, but the old woman has died and left his two young nieces and nephew alone and bereft. Out of options and thrust into reluctant parenthood, the prodigal son returns to his native Hawai`i to seek out his father, a preacher who is initiating a run for Congress.
Thus begins Maui’s new leaf, yet old habits die hard and resentments linger, even in the bosom of the family that includes a convenient mother-substitute for the street-smart orphans and a sanguine and supportive half-brother. Living in the native homestead where the water is shut off daily to irrigate the sugar cane fields and noxious smoke from crop burnings seeps into the children’s bedroom, the Hawai`i of postcards is only a mirage created for tourists at the luxury hotel where Maui works. Populated with complex, odd characters and a deeply flawed yet irresistibly engaging narrator, House of the Sun paints an indelible portrait of a singular and treasured slice of America, still plagued by a dark legacy yet infused with hope.
Read an excerpt.