Island's End by Padma VenkatramanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is challenging to categorize. It has the feel of realistic fiction, yet the reality of Uido's world includes spirits (though this is no fantasy). Uido has always seen the spirits of her people in her dreams, though she has not let many know this. She is sent a warning about strangers coming to her island home. When they do arrive, some of the members of her tribe are seduced by the strangers gifts, matches for example, but Uido feels unsure. Lah-ame, the tribe's elder/shaman, declares that the tribe should stay away from the strangers and offers to teach Uido the secrets of being a shaman. Uido struggles through her lessons to achieve her goal. When she returns to her tribe, so do the strangers, and Uido's younger brother becomes sick. Uido must decide whether to seek out the medicine of the strangers to save her brother or to follow the path her people have always walked.
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