Young Rachel Kalama, growing up in idyllic Honolulu in the 1890s, is part of a big, loving Hawaiian family, and dreams of seeing the far-off lands that her father, a merchant seaman, often visits. But at the age of seven, Rachel and her dreams are shattered by the discovery that she has leprosy. Forcibly removed from her family, she is sent to Kalaupapa, the isolated leper colony on the island of Moloka'i. In her exile she finds a family of friends to replace the family she's lost: a native healer, Haleola, who becomes her adopted "auntie" and makes Rachel aware of the rich culture and mythology of her people; Sister Mary Catherine Voorhies, one of the Franciscan sisters who care for young girls at Kalaupapa; and the beautiful, worldly Leilani, who harbors a surprising secret. At Kalaupapa she also meets the man she will one day marry. True to historical accounts, Moloka'i is the story of an extraordinary human drama, the full scope and pathos of which has never been told before in fiction. But Rachel's life, though shadowed by disease, isolation, and tragedy, is also one of joy, courage, and dignity. This is a story about life, not death; hope, not despair. It is not about the failings of flesh, but the strength of the human spirit.

Moloka'i

Literature & Fiction

Brennert, Alan

United States

St.Martin's Press

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 “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. As for me, my parents named me Regret.”
Honolulu is the rich, unforgettable story of a young “picture bride” who journeys to Hawai'i in 1914 in search of a better life.
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. Renaming herself Jin, she makes her own way in this strange land, finding both opportunity and prejudice. 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. 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 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.

Honolulu

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 "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. As for me, my parents named me Regret." Honolulu is the rich, unforgettable story of a young "picture bride" who journeys to Hawai'i in 1914 in search of a better life.
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. Renaming herself Jin, she makes her own way in this strange land, finding both opportunity and prejudice. 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. 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 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.

Honolulu: A Novel

St. Martin's: Griffin

Bestseller Alan Brennert's spellbinding story about a family of dreamers and their lives within the legendary Palisades Amusement Park
Growing up in the 1930s, there is no more magical place than Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey―especially for seven-year-old Antoinette, who horrifies her mother by insisting on the unladylike nickname Toni, and her brother, Jack. Toni helps her parents, Eddie and Adele Stopka, at the stand where they sell homemade French fries amid the roar of the Cyclone roller coaster. There is also the lure of the world's biggest salt-water pool, complete with divers whose astonishing stunts inspire Toni, despite her mother's insistence that girls can't be high divers.
But a family of dreamers doesn't always share the same dreams, and then the world intrudes: There's the Great Depression, and Pearl Harbor, which hits home in ways that will split the family apart; and perils like fire and race riots in the park. Both Eddie and Jack face the dangers of war, while Adele has ambitions of her own―and Toni is determined to take on a very different kind of danger in impossible feats as a high diver. Yet they are all drawn back to each other―and to Palisades Park―until the park closes forever in 1971.
Evocative and moving, with the trademark brilliance at transforming historical events into irresistible fiction that made Alan Brennert's Moloka'i and Honolulu into reading group favorites, Palisades Park takes us back to a time when life seemed simpler―except, of course, it wasn't.

Palisades Park

Ginny is a waiflike department store employee. Desperate for love but unwilling to keep her opinions to herself, she alienates the few good men who come her way. Michael is a graphic artist doing cut-and-paste work in New York's Chinatown. Talented but lacking in ambition, he figures women look right through him--and can't really blame them. Then one Christmas both Ginny and Michael give up on life, only to find something infinitely more wonderful. Because after risking everything, they soon discover, amid the glittering December snow, a romance awash with all the wonders of the hereafter, but with a great deal to teach us all about living here on Earth.

Kindred Spirits

Forge Books

Time And Chance

A classic novel from the bestselling author of Moloka'i and Honolulu Before Alan Brennert became a bestselling author of historical novels, he wrote this lyrical fantasy in the vein of The Time Travelerâs Wife. Part love story, part deeply affecting character study, it is a literary tour de force chronicling the parallel lives of two men who were once the same man--until, as the poet Robert Frost wrote, âTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood/And sorry I could not travel both/And be one traveler...â Thirteen years ago, Richard Cochrane left his small New England town to pursue his dreams of an acting career.Â But on some other level of reality there is also a Rick Cochrane, who chose instead to set aside his dreams, marry the woman he loved, and raise a family. Today, neither man is happy with the choice he made--but as their lives, once separated by time and chance, now draw closer together, Richard and Rick are offered anotherÂ a last chance to discover âthe road not taken.â Time and Chance displays the same vivid sense of time and place--and the vibrant, memorable characters drawn with compassion, warmth, and humor--that have made the authorâs historical novels national bestsellers and reading group favorites.

Time and Chance

Tor Books

A classic novel from the bestselling author of Moloka'i and Honolulu Before Alan Brennert became a bestselling author of historical novels, he wrote this lyrical fantasy in the vein of The Time Traveler's Wife. Part love story, part deeply affecting character study, it is a literary tour de force chronicling the parallel lives of two men who were once the same man--until, as the poet Robert Frost wrote, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood/And sorry I could not travel both/And be one traveler..."
Thirteen years ago, Richard Cochrane left his small New England town to pursue his dreams of an acting career. But on some other level of reality there is also a Rick Cochrane, who chose instead to set aside his dreams, marry the woman he loved, and raise a family. Today, neither man is happy with the choice he made--but as their lives, once separated by time and chance, now draw closer together, Richard and Rick are offered another a last chance to discover "the road not taken."
Time and Chance displays the same vivid sense of time and place--and the vibrant, memorable characters drawn with compassion, warmth, and humor--that have made the author's historical novels national bestsellers and reading group favorites.

Barely recovering from separate suicide attempts, Michael and Ginny, two people who despaired of finding love, find each other and a second chance at life

Bestseller Alan Brennert's spellbinding story about a family of dreamers and their lives within the legendary Palisades Amusement Park
Growing up in the 1930s, there is no more magical place than Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey―especially for seven-year-old Antoinette, who horrifies her mother by insisting on the unladylike nickname Toni, and her brother, Jack. Toni helps her parents, Eddie and Adele Stopka, at the stand where they sell homemade French fries amid the roar of the Cyclone roller coaster. There is also the lure of the world's biggest salt-water pool, complete with divers whose astonishing stunts inspire Toni, despite her mother's insistence that girls can't be high divers. But a family of dreamers doesn't always share the same dreams, and then the world intrudes: There's the Great Depression, and Pearl Harbor, which hits home in ways that will split the family apart; and perils like fire and race riots in the park. Both Eddie and Jack face the dangers of war, while Adele has ambitions of her own―and Toni is determined to take on a very different kind of danger in impossible feats as a high diver. Yet they are all drawn back to each other―and to Palisades Park―until the park closes forever in 1971. Evocative and moving, with the trademark brilliance at transforming historical events into irresistible fiction that made Alan Brennert's Moloka'i and Honolulu into reading group favorites, Palisades Park takes us back to a time when life seemed simpler―except, of course, it wasn't.

Palisades Park: A Novel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brennert, Alan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Brennert, Alan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brennert, Alan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Moloka'i

Honolulu

Honolulu: A Novel

Palisades Park

Kindred Spirits

Time and Chance

Time And Chance

Kindred Spirits

Honolulu

Palisades Park: A Novel