First sentence: Later, when memory was all she had to sustain her, she would come to cherish it: Old Honolulu as it was then, as it would never be again.

My book club meets once a month, and usually I don’t hear too much from the girls until I e-mail them when our meeting is getting near. But everyone was really into “Moloka’i” and kept e-mailing me to say how much they liked it. My friend Janice was out at Pickwick for a long weekend with friends and had to force herself to quit reading so she wouldn’t seem anti-social.

I have to admit I had mixed feelings about reading a book about a leper colony – how depressing could that be? – but author Alan Brennert immediately pulls you in to Rachel Kalama’s life in Honolulu in the late 1800s, and by the time you get to Kalaupapa, there’s no going back.

Brennert did extensive research on the leper colony and how it evolved over the years. Rachel (a fictional character) arrives after the time of Father Damien, the real-life Catholic priest who devoted himself to caring for the exiles on Moloka’i. Brennert expertly mixes the real and the fictional, the folklore and the practical, throughout the novel, and is adept at bringing the characters to life. Some of the members of the book club were impressed that he was able to capture the main characters so well, as most of them are women.

We all felt that we understood Rachel and her many emotions and challenges, and loved her spirit. Sister Catherine, one of the nuns who takes care of the children on the island, is fleshed out with her depression, her doubts and her circuitous travels back to her faith. Even most of the secondary characters are very easy to see as real.

Family, ohana, is a big theme. Rachel has many different families during her lifetime — when one is taken from her, it is replaced by another. We were all a little angry at her real mother, but thankful for her “Auntie” Haleola, a kahuna, and Sister Catherine, and how they both mother her and educate her, each in their own ways. We loved Rachel’s relationship with her father, who instills in her the desire to travel, and who faithfully visits her through the years. And her relationship with her husband, who makes sacrifices to keep their small family together.

As sad as the book is at times, it’s not depressing, but hopeful and uplifting. Many of us thought we might read the book again (the ultimate compliment), slower this time, to really absorb its rich complexities.

We did have one fault with the book – there’s no closure with one of the characters – and I e-mailed Brennert to ask about that, and to say how much we liked the book and were surprised we hadn’t come across it before on the book club lists. He wrote back the next day and was so thoroughly nice in his explanation that we gave him a pass. I was happy to hear the book is selling as well as it ever has – it’s in its 15th printing – and that he has a new book coming out around the end of the year called “Honolulu,” about a young Korean woman who comes to Hawaii as a picture bride. We may have to suspend our paperback-only rules…

During February, we’re reading “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides. I have to say I’m having a little trouble getting into it – and I haven’t really heard anything from the book club girls – but it’s gotten so much buzz, I’m sticking with it.

Please chime in on “Moloka’i” if you’ve read it. And let us know what your book club is reading this month…

Jeni Donlon is a member of the First Monday Book Club and the All Zones Editor at The Commercial Appeal.