And they would pray to the pale freckled face of the moon floating on the water’s surface, pray that the child growing inside my mother’s womb would be a boy.

So every day for months before I was born, my parents would rise before dawn, carrying offerings of fresh-steamed rice cakes to the stone well behind our home, as the sky brightened and snuff ed out the stars. Only men could carry on the family line women were merely vessels by which to provide society with an uninterrupted supply of men. Of course, every family in those days desired a son over a daughter. A dragon embodied the yang, the masculine principle of life, and it was thought that if a couple expecting a child prayed to the dragon’s egg, their offspring would be male. When I was a young child growing up in Korea, it was said that the image of the fading moon at daybreak, reflected in a pond or stream or even a well, resembled the speckled shell of a dragon’s egg. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. With its passionate knowledge of people and places in Hawai'i far off the tourist track, Honolulu is most of all the spellbinding tale of four women in a new world, united by dreams, disappointment, sacrifices, and friendship. But paradise has its dark side, whether it's the daily struggle for survival in Honolulu's tenements, or a crime that will become the most infamous in the islands' history.

With the help of three of her fellow picture brides, Jin prospers along with her adopted city, now growing from a small territorial capital into the great multicultural city it is today. Renaming herself Jin, she makes her own way in this strange land, finding both opportunity and prejudice. Instead of the affluent young husband and chance at an education that she has been promised, she is quickly married off to a poor, embittered laborer who takes his frustrations out on his new wife. Honolulu is the rich, unforgettable story of a young 'picture bride' who journeys to Hawai'i in 1914 in search of a better life. 'In Korea in those days, newborn girls were not deemed important enough to be graced with formal names, but were instead given nicknames, which often reflected the parents' feelings on the birth of a daughter: I knew a girl named Anger, and another called Pity.

From the bestselling author of the 'dazzling historical saga' (The Washington Post ), Moloka'i, comes the irresistible story of a young immigrant bride in a ramshackle town that becomes a great modern city

Honolulu by alan brennert