'It does not disappoint.' - The Guardian When Mina receives an urgent call from her best friend back in Melbourne, her world is turned upside down. Her reclusive mother, Elaine, has left the house for the first time in twelve years. Mina drops everything to fly home, only to discover that Elaine will not talk about her sudden return to the world, nor why she's spent so much time hiding from it. Their reunion leaves Mina raking through pieces of their painful past in a bid to uncover the truth. Both tender and fierce, heartbreaking and funny, Kokomo is a story about how secrets and love have the power to bring us together and tear us apart. 'A timely song of secrets, sex and the meaning of love' - Sydney Morning Herald 'A coming-of-age novel for the Peter Pan generation, Kokomo juggles the dissatisfactions of sex, marriage, and corporate ambition with deceptive lightness and radiant empathy. Reading this book felt like drinking with friends in a cozy pub until last call; I emerged from it shiny-faced, unbothered by the cold, wanting more.' - Laura Elizabeth Woollett, author of THE LOVE OF A BAD MAN and BEAUTIFUL REVOLUTIONARY 'This is a book that gets right into your body. It makes you laugh, makes you think, but it doesn't stop there - it plays with your heart and leaves it different. This is smart, raw, tender fiction that feels as real as life.' - Ronnie Scott, author of THE ADVERSARY 'Graceful and raw, this is a remarkable study of the forces of desire and regret. Hannan is both acute witness and masterful reporter of love in all its faulty and essential shapes. Kokomo dazzles, pierces, and stays.' - Robert Lukins, author of THE EVERLASTING SUNDAY 'I can't remember being so excited by a debut novel. Kokomo is a delight, a book I wanted to finish in a greedy rush but one I also wanted to savour. It's so full of life, on each page there are tiny moments of delight, irreverence, tenderness. Kokomo is the Australian response to Normal People, this is Monkey Grip for the new generation of readers. This book will be read and cherished by many, and Victoria Hannan is a name we will see a great deal more in the future.' - J.P. Pomare, author of CALL ME EVIE and IN THE CLEARING 'Hannan's Kokomo is a sharply observed novel of one woman's facade and how it falls; an undoing that is both ordinary and compelling. This debut heralds an exciting new Australian voice with a story of estrangement from kin, friendship, love, self and country - one that will be familiar to many, and surprising, for it is often a shock to see one's reflection.' - Anna Krien, author of NIGHT GAMES and ACT OF GRACE

According to legend, Kokomo, Indiana was named after a Miami Indian Chief who lived in the area, "Ma Ko Ko Mo" -meaning Black Walnut. Founded in 1842 by David Foster, a frontier trader, Kokomo has since become the home to many of the nation's most influential inventions. From the birthplace of the automobile to the introduction of stainless steel and the development of canned tomato juice, Kokomo has been a leader in ingenuity, earning its nickname, the "City of Firsts." In this collection of reminiscent images, Kokomo, Indiana illustrates the charming history of an area which has developed from a small community to what is now one of the largest cities in Indiana. The book is an exploration of the city's streets and a stroll through the history of its growing neighborhoods, tracing the fascinating past of a bygone age.

As we move out of the past and into the present, our landscape is forever altered by the passing of time. The face of Kokomo, "The City of Firsts," has changed over the years. Once an image of small-town Americana, Kokomo has grown-expanding its industrial reach, enticing new residents, and continuing to be the first in a number of fields. Kokomo, Indiana: Then and Now takes the reader back to a simpler time in Kokomo history. Using historic images paired with contemporary photos, authors Thomas D. and Barbara Hamilton have created a charming view of the area's history and evolution.

The first Japanese American jockey, Kokomo Joe burst like a comet on the American horse-racing scene in the summer of 1941. As war with Japan loomed, Yoshio Kokomo Joe Kobuki won race after race, stirring passions far beyond merely the envy and antagonism of other jockeys. His is a story of the American dream catapulting headlong into the nightmare of a nation gripped by wartime hysteria and xenophobia. The story that unfolds in Kokomo Joe is at once inspiring, deeply sad, and richly ironic and remarkably relevant in our own climate of nationalist fervor and racial profiling. Sent to Japan from Washington State after his mother and three siblings died of the Spanish flu, Kobuki continued to nurse his dream of the American good life. Because of his small stature, his ambition steered him to a future as a star jockey. John Christgau narrates Kobuki s rise from lowly stable boy to reigning star at California fairs and in the bush leagues. He describes how, at the height of the jockey s fame, even his flight into the Sonora Desert could not protect him from the government s espionage and sabotage dragnet. And finally he recounts how, after three years of internment, Kokomo Joe tried to reclaim his racing success, only to fall victim to still-rampant racism, a career-ending injury, and cancer.

Just off the Continental Slope, in the aqua-green waters near the Straits of Florida, is Key Kokomo. Purchased in the early nineteen thirties by a French orphan, the key became an opulent tourist resort known as the Key Kokomo, Pier House Resort." Jethro Thurman Billman, or JT, built his resort on a pier jetting out into the crystal clear waters of the Atlantic. On this key, freshly divorced Chet Walker discovers his worst nightmare is not running from an alcoholic broken marriage. He looks beyond Key Kokomos lush tropical palm tree lined beaches, wispy pine forests, and murky mangrove swamps, and sees a true monster in the keys owner JT. The two men become natural enemies, as Chet meeting new friends, wrestles with the ghosts of his past and his dreams for a future, and JT tries to consume yet one more tortured soul. JTs desperate plan, to continue a dying bloodline, starts to unravel, during a freakish early January hurricane, called Annabelle. Key Kokomo a tropical resort paradise, where love and alcohol flow as free as milk and honey, dreams glow as fresh as the morning sun, and reality comes with a sobering price.

Kokomo Kid is about more than just growing up in a medium-sized Indiana city, where factories flourished and neighbors were actually neighborly. It's about the human dynamic and how our past forms and sometimes even predicts our future, whether we like it or not. It is what we do with those feelings and memories rising from good and bad moments that defines our character as we meander toward our golden years. This simple and sincere book is a sentimental journey to a time of innocence, love, and lost loves--a nostalgic, introspective, inspiring peek into the diary of the atypical childhood of a midwestern gal.