RIGHT WAY, WRONG WAY...AND LION'S WAY
September 28, 2022It is estimated that there are more than forty million people today living in some form of slavery. In Africa, you can buy a slave child for about forty dollars. Every hour of every day, somewhere in the world, a child slave dies. I discovered these horrible statistics when pursuing a magazine assignment on chocolate. Obviously this did not fit in a story on truffles, but it haunted me. I imagined such a child, kidnaped from a loving home. I gave this child a name, Lion, and he proceeded to tell me his story, which has become the novel, LION'S WAY.
Like Patrick of Ireland, Lion has a miraculous dream of escape and finds his way home. He is given a book about Damien of Molokai and is launched on his spiritual journey which lands him in Hawaii.
Iris and “Pops” Kamana embrace the young African in the Hawaiian tradition of hanai, of absorbing people into your family. They have four children of their own, David, an attorney/activist for native Hawaiian rights; Moses, who is happy to work the family taro patches; Pohai a lovely rising star in Hawaiian music; and Lili, a rebellious teenager who gets pregnant.
As a priest, Lion is blessed (or burdened) with a gift for spiritual healing and is sent from island to island. My book is crammed with the people he meets, warm, loving friends, a cranky old lady, his worldly bishop, and a few murderers in need of redemption. He finds himself entangled in adventures such as a flash flood, a devastating hurricane, an encounter with a tiger shark, and even with the devil himself. Through it all, Lion struggles with his own soul and his need to forgive his captors, to practice what he preaches. He returns to Africa and finds he is now an observer in his own land. He has big decisions to make.
Two of the most difficult things we do in life are forgive and surrender, and the latter is the harder, especially surrender of the heart’s desire. LION'S WAY tackles these issues. It is a multi-cultural story set primarily in Hawaii, one of the most beautiful and desirable places on Earth.
Posted by Daniel Janik. Posted In : New Book Release