I’ll Stop the World is the debut title of the Fortunate Desilva series about a newly-minted, middle-aged lawyer who witnesses the joys and heartbreaks of island life as she struggles to launch her practice.
Much like Mma Ramotswe, the enterprising protagonist of Alexander McCall’s best-selling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Fortunate’s law office serves as a window into her small community in Hawai`i. After difficult years of study in Honolulu, separated from her former district attorney (now baker) husband Walter, Fortunate has returned to Maui to establish her small, female-run law office in a neighborhood called Happy Valley. One of her first clients, a tourist, quickly reveals the dark side of paradise when his family is the victim of a nightmarish catastrophe on a local beach. Another client, an arrogant young man caught up in the drug trade, doesn’t comprehend how he is about to witlessly toss his life away as the fall guy. Meanwhile, a young mother might lose custody of her children thanks to her husband’s accusations of domestic violence.
Fortunate’s cases reveal the struggles and joys intrinsic to islanders’ lives, while her interactions with her loving husband and brother-in-law, a reformed ex-con who also works as her assistant, lighten the atmosphere. In I’ll Stop the World Ka’apuni-McMillen has created a reality at once exotic and ordinary, both gritty and warmly intimate. Like so many women today trying to make the best of an imperfect situation, Fortunate endures with frustration, compassion, and a touch of grace.
Read an excerpt.