My Name is Loa

My Name is Loa is the story of a fifteen-year-old Hawaiian boy who always thought he would grow up to become a doctor and live in a fine house. That was before he was diagnosed as having leprosy and banished to Kalaupapa on the island of Moloka'i. It is 1898, the year the Hawaiian islands were annexed to the United States.

Life in Kalaupapa is not unlike life in any plantation town in Hawai'i, except for the fact that it is a leprosy settlement. Every patient sent there knows there is no return. When Loa arrives at the settlement he is frightened by the hundreds of diseased patients. But soon his life falls into a routine. He befriends Paka, a troublesome boy from Maui; he works as an editor for Brother Dutton. And he is cherished like a son by Sam, who had saved him from drowning on the voyage to Kalaupapa.

Loa falls in love with Kamalani, a patient who works at the clinic. And eight-year-old Hiapo, who shares moments with him in a treehouse, eating peanuts and bombarding mynahs with their shells, teaches him to face death.

My Name is Loa is a story you will never forget.