Warriors

October 15, 2013
Highliners, the author's 1979 novel about Alaska fishermen, spawned two sequels, Breakers (2000) and Raiders (2004). And now it's spawned a prequel, which begins on the island of Okinawa in 1945. Kiyoshi Tsurifune, whom readers will remember from the earlier books as the director of a Japanese fishing concern, is in an American prisoner-of-war camp; one of the guards is Jones Henry, later to be mentor to Hank Crawford, Highliners' main character. After the war, Henry makes his way home to Alaska, whereheenters the fishing business. Later, Tsurifune arrives in Alaska but hardly to open arms: WWII is still a very raw memory, and the idea of trade with the Japanese is distasteful to many. And that's not the only problem: there is a movement afoot to unionize the Alaskan fisheries, and a strike is looming in the near distance. As he did with the earlier books, McCloskey, a former commercial fisherman, turns what might be a niche subject into something that will piquemany readers' interest. His characters are finely etched, and their individual stories are compelling.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)