Cindrich, Lisa. In the shadow of the pali; a story of the Hawaiian leper colony.

CINDRICH, Lisa. In the shadow of the pali; a story of the Hawaiian leper colony. Penguin, Putnam. 240p. c2002.0-399-23855-7 $17.99. JS

Any story about lepers before 20th-century medical breakthroughs is bound to be horrific and depressing, and this is no exception. It is a story of courage, however, as young Liliha is forced to leave her family to go alone to the Hawaiian leper colony at Kalaupapa--before Father Damien arrived in 1873 to make the conditions there more humane. Liliha is facing a terrible disease alone, she is starving, and she is surrounded by violent bullies determined to have power over her. There is no shelter to speak of, and little in the way of medical attention. How she finds a way to eat at least subsistence food, how she makes her own shelter, acquires a friend and defeats an enemy are the details of this plot. There is no cure and her disease worsens, but she comes to some sort of acceptance of her fate toward the end of the story.

Cindrich provides a detailed glossary and historical note, which helps her readers with Hawaiian vocabulary and places the story in a historical context. Even though Liliha is young--about 12 years old--this in itself should not limit the readership of the novel because the conditions of her life are so far removed from anything modern YAs would know for themselves. It's a horror story in many ways, of a girl struggling against all sorts of evil--from the uncle who forced her as a child to care for her diseased grandmother, which probably caused her infection, to the disease itself, to the betrayal of authorities. Cindrich describes the horror of the leper colony and also the beauty of the place in ways that make the story fascinating.