One Book One Minnesota Program announces its twelfth title: Sharks in the Time of Saviors
Great River Regional Library is participating in the twelfth chapter of One Book | One Minnesota. This statewide book club invites Minnesotans of all ages to read a common title and come together virtually to enjoy, reflect, and discuss. The twelfth title for the program is Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn. Presented in partnership with State Library Services, a Minnesota Department of Education division, the program aims to bring Minnesotans together and highlight the role of libraries as community connectors.
From July 29 through September 22, Minnesotans will be invited to read the featured book selection, access reading guides, and participate in virtual book club discussions through their local libraries.
Readers can access the ebook for free on EBooks Minnesota for eight weeks. Click here to start reading the ebook. (There is no wait time or limit! Start reading now!)
In addition to the digital format, hard copies of the book will be available in the Great River Regional Library catalog. Request your copy from the catalog.
Reading with your book club? Reading and discussion guides are available to use on the One Book One Minnesota website.
All Minnesotans are invited to participate in a statewide discussion with the author of the book:
Virtual Author Conversation
Wednesday, August 21st at 7:00 p.m.
Conversation with Kawai Strong Washburn
Free and open to the public | Register for free
About Sharks in the Time of Saviors
In 1995, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends and a sign of divine favor.
But as time passes, this supposed divine favor begins to drive the family apart: Nainoa, working now as a paramedic on the streets of Portland, struggles to fathom the full measure of his expanding abilities; further north in Washington, his older brother Dean hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, obsessed with wealth and fame; while in California, risk-obsessed younger sister Kaui navigates an unforgiving academic workload in an attempt to forge her independence from the family’s legacy.
About Author Kawai Strong Washburn
Kawai Strong Washburn was born and raised on the Hamakua coast of the Big Island of Hawai’i. His first novel, Sharks in the Time of Saviors, Won the 2021 PEN/Hemingway award for debut novel and the 2021 Minnesota Book Award; it was also longlisted for the 2020 Center For Fiction First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the 2021 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. Former US President Barack Obama chose it as a favorite novel of 2020, and it was selected as a notable or best book of the year by over a dozen publications, including the New York Times and Boston Globe. It has also been translated into eight languages and counting. Washburn lives with his wife and two daughters in Minneapolis.
About One Book | One Minnesota
One Book | One Minnesota is presented by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, as the Minnesota Center for the Book, in partnership with State Library Services and sponsored by SPIRE Credit Union. Program partners also include the Council of Regional Public Library System Administrators; Mackin VIA; Minitex; the Minnesota Department of Education; and the University of Minnesota Press. This program is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, as well as through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Links to resources and more information can be found at thefriends.org/onebook.
