When Strange Gods Call

This is a Shakespearean love story of old family rivalries that threaten a pair of ill-fated lovers who defy generations of animosity. It is set in the tropical paradise of Hawaii, the island temptress that lures the lovers back, and becomes part of this tale of love lost and rediscovered. It is a combination of "Romeo and Juliet" and Abie's Irish Rose with an Asian-Western twist.

When Strange Gods Call takes place in the 1970s, a decade after Hawaii has reached statehood, a time of transition, when, among the older generation, the Confucian ethics of family, honor and scholarship are challenged by the American values of individuality and assertiveness.

The central characters in this forbidden love story are Miki Ai'Lee, the great-granddaughter of the Chinese advisor to the Hawaiian monarchy, and Alex Demming, whose family have lived and grown wealthy over the generations as island ranchers. Their childhood romance ends as Miki flies off to become a professor of art in San Francisco, and Alex leaves for Cambodia where he stalks high stakes international art thieves. Years later, back in Hawaii, their paths cross at a time when both are faced with difficult decisions, strong parental expectations at odds with their own desires, as well as the clash of cultures. For Miki, this means Chinese traditions, in which there is enormous pressure for a young woman of thirty to follow in the footsteps of two thousand years of the history of her people.

Poignant, lyrical, heart-rending and heart-warming, When Strange Gods Call is alive with the spirits of a land lush full of ghost stories and magic, a land powerful enough to reach across the seas and call its children home with the voice of its gods, the "Night Whispers."