Excellent writing, amazing story, based on interviews, published reports, diaries, and newspaper articles. Beginning in 1866, the Hawaiian medical and political operatives passed laws forbidding suspected persons with leprosy from living in the community and forcibly transferred them to the isolated island of Molokai. In the beginning, there were only broken-down shacks for shelter, no resident doctors or nurses, and inadequate food supplies. By the 2000's, life in the Settlement became bearable and the few remaining residents demanded to remain for there for the remainder of their days. Eye-opening, heart-rending, survival against-all-odds.