Publisher's Synopsis
'You can't read Kiana Davenport without being transformed.' - ALICE WALKER'Song of the Exile transports the reader into an often-magical world by the power of its story. Its language is at times a song, and sometimes a cry in the dark...Kiana Davenport's imagination and vision will haunt you for a long time.' - LUCIE PRINZ, CHICAGO TRIBUNE'It's a book of love, loss, honour and revenge, of the sustaining power of memory...From the pages waft the intensity of frangipani, the near-sexual charge of over-ripe mango, the sweetness of Keo's trumpet and the sickly stench of war.' - SUSAN KUROSAWA, THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIANThis truly spic novel spans the world, and reaches the heights of love and the depths of despair and degradation. From peaceful Hawaii to the turmoil of pre-war Europe, through war-torn Asia to the last throes of war in the Pacific, we follow Keo, the 'hula man' and the two passions which sustain his life - his lifelong, relentless love for Sunny, and his matchless power over music, a power to reach for the sublime and transport his listeners, and his readers, with him.In spellbinding prose, Kiana Davenport follows the odyssey of one resilient man searching for his soul mate;This extraordinary novel also sheds a stark light on the unspoken fate that befell thousands of women during this dark time in history. As haunting as a trumpet's final note, Song of the Exile is a mesmerising story of music and myth, tragedy and triumph, survival and transcendence.
