Valley of Spiraling Winds

In the mystical Valley of Spiraling Winds, deep in the mountains of Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu, old memories stir. Hawaiian writer Peter Britos explores the roots of contemporary Hawaiʻi through the lens of a dystopian future in this edgy, time-hopping novel. From a predicament in the future, the narrative plunges into the past to follow the journey of a Hawaiian-immigrant family through multiple generations spanning the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. The journey begins when veteran mnemo-navigator Estrella Kuemanu arrives in Waikīkī, ready to take a deep dive a thousand years into the past. She has the koko, the blood, the genealogical signature to make this dive. If the stories and intel are true, she must find Bishop Valdez and his sister Nalani—they may hold the key to preventing an apocalyptic prophecy from being fulfilled. Estrella has studied the lore, whittled the names into her drivepack; but she knows that’s no guarantee. It’s a mess back there that deep in the past, what with those crazy-ass people so much like her own, driven by passions and curses, dumb luck both good and bad, dreams for the living, dreams of the dead. Author Peter Britos brings a courageously fresh, indigenous sensibility to the science-fiction realm with this first novel from his multiplatform Spiral Jungle universe. Deliberately drawing from several storytelling traditions, including the epic poem and narrative practices unique to Hawaiʻi, the author presents this visionary tale with rich and lyrical language. Hyperrealism, sharp socio-political satire, and black humor combine with the poetic, sensual, and mystical to create a spellbinding world of memorable characters. This groundbreaking novel takes on some of the most pressing cultural, political, and ethical issues of our times with an innovative approach and critical focus. It strips away popular, clichéd representations of the Hawaiian Islands and its peoples and reimagines Hawaiʻi’s history and mythology in profoundly beautiful and relevant ways.