A sweeping debut spanning from China to Hawaii that follows four
generations of a wealthy shipping family whose rise and decline is
riddled with secrets and tragic love--from a young, powerful new voice
in fiction.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Frank Leong, a fabulously wealthy
shipping industrialist, moves his family from China to the island of
Oahu. But something ancient follows the Leongs to Hawaii, haunting them.
The parable of the red string of fate, the cord that binds one intended
beloved to her perfect match, also punishes for mistakes in love,
passing a destructive knot down the family line.
When Frank Leong is murdered, his family is thrown into a perilous
downward spiral. Left to rebuild in their patriarch's shadow, the
surviving members of the Leong family try their hand at a new, ordinary
life, vowing to bury their gilded past. Still, the island continues to
whisper--fragmented pieces of truth and chatter, until a letter arrives
two decades later, carrying a confession that shatters the family even
further.
Now the Leongs' survival rests with young Theresa, Frank Leong's only
grandchild, eighteen and pregnant, the heir apparent to her ancestors'
punishing knots.
Told through the eyes of the Leong's secret-keeping daughters and wives
and spanning The Boxer Rebellion to Pearl Harbor to 1960s Hawaii,
Diamond Head is a breathtakingly powerful tale of tragic love,
shocking lies, poignant compromise, aching loss, heroic acts of
sacrifice and, miraculous hope.
