I'd actually give this book 3 1/2 stars. The story was really interesting and a topic not often covered, the leper colony on the island of Moloka’i established in the late 1890s as the epidemic spread across the Hawaiian Islands. There are some richly developed characters and it definitely makes one understand the agony of being sent away and isolated from family, friends and the rest of civilization. My one complaint is that it is a bit long. The author could have told just as compelling a story with about 75 less pages.