SURVIVAL STORIES HIGHLIGHT COURAGE OF SURVIVORS AND RESCUERS

The shark attack in which 13-year-old Bethany Hamilton of Kaua‘i lost her left arm has focused national attention on the dangers lying in wait for surfers, swimmers, and others who work and play outdoors in Hawai‘i. In Perils of Paradise, just released by Bess Press , nationally published journalist Rita Beamish interviews survivors and their rescuers to reveal the skills and determination of eight people who fought nature and won: a young woman washed out to sea by the 1946 tsunami that devastated Laupahoehoe; a young man rescued by lifeguards from a sea cave on O‘ahu; a bird surveyor carried out of a lava crack hundreds of feet deep on the Big Island; a surfer who lost his foot to a shark on Kaua‘i; a commercial fisherman whose plane went down between O‘ahu and Moloka‘i; a kayaker adrift for days on the ocean south of the Big Island. In reporting details of the victims' ordeals, Beamish provides insights into why these people survived when others in similar circumstances have not.

Bess Press , celebrating 25 years of independent publishing is located in Honolulu , Hawai'i and publishes trade titles about Pacific-related topics in the following categories: children's literature, cookbooks, humor, sports, languages, reference books, and guidebooks.

Review copies and digital images are available from Bess Press: info@besspress.com , (808) 734-7159, ext. 21.

ISBN 1-57306-168-9, 144 pages, $11.95