Behold the Many: A Novel

Lois-Ann Yamanaka

Jan 2007 · Sold by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

About this ebook

Behold the Many is the eerily beautiful story of three young sisters, Anah, Aki, and Leah. In 1913, they are sent away from their family for treatment for tuberculosis to an orphanage in Hawaii's Kalihi Valley. Of the three, two will die there, in spite of the nuns' best efforts to save them, and only Anah, the eldest, will grow to adulthood.

But the ghosts of the dead children are afraid to leave the grounds of St. Joseph's, which is the only place they have known as home, and as Anah prepares to begin married life away from the orphanage, these ghost children grow angry. Desperate for the love of this girl who has communicated with them since her childhood, jealous of her ability to live in the physical world, and terrified of losing her, the ghosts are determined to thwart Anah's happiness. One of them places a curse on her that will reverberate through her future and that of her new family. As Anah struggles to appease the dead and to quiet her own guilt for living, it becomes apparent that only through one of her own daughters can redemption be attained.

Poignant, lyrical, and utterly compelling, Behold the Many is a stunning new novel from the critically acclaimed author Lois-Ann Yamanaka.

Ratings and reviews

At first I did not understand the book, and it didn't grab my attention as much because the "pidgin" talk was a little too much for me to understand. But as I kept reading on, the story gets more interesting and everything just starts to make more sense as all the pieces come together. Great book. I recommend on reading.

About the author

Lois-Ann Yamanaka is the author of several novels, including Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers (FSG, 1996), Blu's Hanging (FSG, 1997), Heads by Harry (FSG, 1999), and Father of the Four Passages (FSG, 2001).