Daughter of Moloka’i by Alan Brennert
St. Martin’s Press, 2019
This companion tale to Moloka’i tells the story of Ruth, the daughter that Rachel Kalama, quarantined for most of her life at the isolated leprosy settlement of Kalaupapa, was forced to give up at birth. The book follows young Ruth’s arrival at the Kapi’olani Home for Girls in Honolulu, her adoption by a Japanese couple who raise her on a strawberry and grape farm in California, her unjust internment at Manzanar Relocation Camp during World War II, and the life-altering day when she receives a letter from her birth mother.
Daughter of Moloka’i is a fulfilling sequel, but readers will want to read Moloka’i first to fully appreciate Ruth’s story. For me, Ruth’s story didn’t pack the same emotional punch that Rachel’s did, and at times I felt that Ruth’s story was being narrated remotely.
Even so, several passages brought me to tears. The unjust internment that Ruth and her family faced during World War II—and the racism they experienced following the war—are unforgettable. Ruth’s love for animals is an ongoing theme, and Alan Brennert creates beautiful moments for it to shine throughout Ruth’s lifetime. The mother-daughter relationships that bloom between Ruth and her adopted and biological mothers are also tender.
Reader, what did you think of Daughter of Moloka’i? Can you appreciate Ruth’s story on its own, apart from her mother’s earlier story in Moloka’i?
(Click here to read my review of Moloka’i.)
