The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings is a wonderful novel that was turned into a great movie starring George Clooney. The novel is set in Hawaii, but not the tourist Hawaii, the real Hawaii, with all the pain and loss, heartbreak and struggle one finds anywhere in the world.

Matt King, our protagonist, is coming to terms with the fact that his wife is in a coma and might never recover. He has two daughters, 10 and 17, that have become completely out of his control, and he is at a loss as to how to pick up the broken pieces of his life.

Add to this the rich story of Hawaii’s privileged decendants of royalty who have inherited vast fortunes without doing any work themselves. This is the story of Matt King and his cousins. The novel starts in Honolulu, but moves to the Big Island briefly and then to Kauai.

Hemmings has crafted a powerful tale of a family trying to find their way back to one another through grief and loss and the creation of something new. Hawaii is there in the background at all times as a strong force shaping the lives of the characters. A complex and powerful novel.