There is a single story amid the extensive oral literature of the Marshall Islanders that uncharacteristically has no ending. Tarmalu leaves her baby in the care of others while she leads her fleet of proa from the shelter of the Wotho Atoll lagoon out into the open ocean to save their craft from the certain destruction of an oncoming typhoon. She is never heard from again. Her son, Lainjen, grows up in an epic search for her and creates a renowned navigational chant to record the seamarks along the way. It is never told if he finds her. Man Shark is the first book of a multigenerational story that attempts to complete this untold tale. In this series, Gerald R. Knight retells many of the classic mythologies translated in Man This Reef, this time in his own words woven into the cultural setting of his novel.
