Rondobontana was written for the child in all of us, and for the pure joy of reading a good old-fashioned fantasy-adventure story. The excitement begins when two unlikely shipmates with very different upbringings and opposing views of the world find themselves pushed together on a vacation cruise with their parents. A mysterious storm and a giant water spout pull them off their small ship and strand them together on a beautiful island where the rules of how life is ordered are turned completely upside down. Animals speak and live like humans, and humans are treated as wild untamed beasts who are mistrusted and afflicted with disease and deformity. Claire Cavanaugh and Michael Peterson battle prejudice, treachery, political intrigue and a deadly time clock to unravel the island’s secrets and free themselves from the island that was created and meant as a safe haven for animal kind only.