The island of Maui. A lost secret. An oral chant involving Captain Cook. A young man following the footsteps of his family around the island and into the past. Will Maui reveal her centuries-old secrets? Will Kai find what he seeks? In this thriller-travelogue, a young man's journey to deliver his father's ashes becomes a mad search when an oral chant suggests a valuable artifact may be hidden near an ancestral altar. As Kai races to find his family's sacred sites, he must navigate between the worlds of art theft, resort development, family secrets, and Hawaiian ethnic identity. The book is both the coming-of-age story of a young man, and the story of Maui itself --- the radical transformations of the culture, religion, and landscape of one of the world's most beloved islands.
About the Author: D.W.M. is the pen name for Dirk, Wolfgang, and Mimmi Beck. Dirk Beck was born on Maui. He visited his grandparents on Maui many times. Dirk was a winner of the Pierce County Writing Contest, and is the author of several novels, including The Mars Project. Dirk enjoys composing and performing music for the jazz orchestra he organizes and directs, Arletta Sound (www.arlettasound.com). He plays tennis, basketball, and track. He is a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wolfgang Beck composes music for Arletta Sound and was selected to compose for the Seatte Symphony (Young Composers Benaroya Hall performance May 2011). He competed in track at the State level and in cross country including at Nike Nationals where he ran the fastest cross country time in the nation for high school sophomores (2011). He won first place in a regional competition for non-native Chinese language public speaking, and also was the Washington State champion for two consecutive years for the Scholastic Challenge Test (2009 and 2010). Mimmi Beck is their mom. She studied creative writing at Wellesley College and in Columbia University's M.F.A. program. She is the co-author of an illustrated children's book, The Girl Who Loved to Draw Birds. Mimmi's great-grandma, Emma Wessels McKee, grew up on Ewa plantation and in Honolulu where her family owned a hotel. Mimmi worked on Maui and visited the islands many times while her parents taught in the Maui County public school system for more than twenty-five years. When Dirk was born, Mimmi and her mother buried Dirk's umbilical cord in their Maui garden beneath the lemon tree to connect the next generation of their family to the island they loved. When Mimmi's mom got cancer, her parents left the island for treatment and were never able to move back. This book was written in memory of countless dreamy trips to Grandma's and Grandpa's island home.