The Flight of the Hawk Islanders is a historical novel based on the author's research study Azoreans to California. It is the story of an Azorean family and its migration from the Azores to California around 1900. The family is ficticious, but the places are real.
CONTENT: There is drama, and there is humor, and also religion. Christianity played a major role in their everyday world. There is love and romance. There is war and death. There are earthquakes and volcano eruptions, plus a trip around Cape Horn on a whaling vessel. There are labor strikes and transcontinental travel. Even Mark Twain and Jack London make cameo appearances.
THEME: The primary theme is "family" and their love for one another as exhibited in their struggles on the Azores and in their migration to California. Since this is about a family, the author purposely wanted it to be a family novel and did not include profanity, sex, or graphic violence.
CHAPTER TITLES: The Village, The Storm, The Festa, The Revolt, The Living and the Dead, The Whales, The Reprisal, A Priestly Plot, The Earthquake, The Volcano, The Decision, The Novitiate, The Stowaways, America, The Deception, The Mill, The Elopement, Martin, Disaster, Yankees, The Reunion, California Bound, Around the Horn, Steerage, At Angela's, Transcontinental, A Mistake, The Docks, Big Sur, At Teresa's, Hills and Valleys, The Widow Patterson, Phoebe, The Patriarch, Tying the Knot, and Transition.
Robert Santos is a librarian and archivist at California State University, Stanislaus where he has been a member of the faculty since 1970. He took his M.S. in library science at the University of Southern California and has published articles on library science, local history, and California history. His books include A Bibliography of Early California and Neighboring Territories through 1846 and Azoreans to California: A History of Migration and Settlement.
For further information, please contact:
Alley-Cass Publications
c/o Robert Santos / bsantos@toto.csustan.edu
3912 Tanager Dr.
Denair, CA 95316