Blood Work and Other Stories is an unflinching portrayal of Hawai‘i’s harshest realities, but grittiness does not mean pessimism. Rather, Carreira Ching writes with tenderness. Threats are rendered in complex, often heart-breaking reality, even as Carreira Ching navigates his characters, and his reader, toward community connection and hope. In formally inventive stories filled with intimacy and grace, Carreira Ching invites us to understand the Windward coast of O‘ahu as few other writers can.
—Kristiana Kahakauwila, author of This is Paradise and Clairboyance
In Blood Work and Other Stories, Donald Carreira Ching presents readers with a series of finely etched characters navigating their way through the nightmares, challenges, and glories of a vividly captured contemporary Hawaiʻi. Climate change, out-migration, the devastating consequences of a drug-drenched society, the burdens of history—all have their impact on kānaka maoli and settlers struggling to deal with family, friends, and personal demons. The result is panoramic view of the islands, assembled out of character portraits displaying all of the subtleties, strengths, and formal mastery that the best short story collections have to offer.
—Craig Howes, Professor of English and Aloha Shorts co-producer, HPR 2009-2012
Carreira Ching’s stories rise to touch the universality of the collective experiences we all face in Hawai‘i, our nation, and at its essence, our world in chaos; our worlds of loss, addiction, alienation, crime, kūpuna, and climate change seen through the eyes of the writer’s honesty and empathy—the quintessential intensity of bearing witness to catastrophic situations without judgment or shame, a release resounding with a generous pragmatic love.
—Lois-Ann Yamanaka, author of Behold the Many
In Blood Work and Other Stories, Hawaiʻi serves as both a sanctuary and a witness to lives shaped by loss, family bonds, and the fragile threads of culture. From a father searching for his daughter during the aftermath of a devastating flood in iconic Waikīkī to a young man searching for his mother’s story through a VHS tape he finds after her passing, each story explores the quiet, sometimes heartbreaking struggle to keep aloha alive in a rapidly changing Hawaiʻi. The themes are universal—love, grief, family—and yet, Carreira Ching provides a clear-eyed and genuine perspective of Hawaiʻi and what makes his home unique. Readers from Hawaiʻi will know these characters and what they value. What kept me reading was how intimate the stories felt to me, how grounded I felt reading from one story to the next.
—Lisa Linn Kanae, author of Islands Linked by Ocean