In my new literary novel, RAIN SHELTERS and GHOST GODS, we follow our main character, Eve Sorenson, from Kailua Beach on Windward Oahu across the Pali to Lyon Arboretum in Manoa Valley. After finding a Hawaiin man, Noa Kala;, recumbent and needing rescue, she meets with Sean Higa, a university professor who works with native plants in the arboretum garden. When she says her name is Eva but goes by Eve, he replies, “Ah, but of course. Eve in the garden.”

As we become acquainted with Eve we learn she has fled personal sorrows and challenges in her home on the shore of Puget Sound to care for her beloved Aunt Meg in Hawaii. Meg, the younger sister of Eve's recently deceased dad Ivar, has lived in Kailua for 30 years. Eve has visited her there annually since childhood and considers Meg the person who best understands Eve and Ivar's father-daughter relationship. His death was the first of six sorrows Eve is grieving when she flees to Hawaii. Her dad goes with here, in her head

Is “Eve in the Garden” an apt analogy for Eve Sorenson? She is accustomed to Pacific Northwest evergreen forests, native shrubs, fruit trees and plants of the region. She has always gardened at her shoreline home, but is a novice at identifying species in Hawaiian forests. She recognizes trees most commonly associated with the Hawaiian Island, but only a few of the 5,000 species growing in the arboretum.

As Eve begins this story, a thought coming from her dad forms in her head: This will be a journey to discovery.