Author, Activist,

Ocean Defender.

Reef Photo, Politics & Reef Art

Novels, Stories, Memoir

Toucan Whisper, Toucan Sing is a bit unusual, pushes the envelope and engenders

discussion. The material is definitely adult, but with a sense of innocence carrying through to

unusual conclusions. The plot is good, the settings excellent, and the characterization and

dialogue superb. We rated this a high four hearts.

—Bob Spear, Publisher and Chief Reviewer, Heartland Reviews

Toucan Whisper, Toucan Sing is the story of two brothers: Antonio, a gregarious gigolo,

and Baldo, a dysfunctional mute who loves nature. Both work at a resort hotel, as does Lyria,

betrothed to Antonio yet drawn to silent Baldo. In the tangle is a murder on the beach and

extrication, Mexican style. Exotic location, beautiful people, sex, and murder: another winning

combination from Permanent Press! But the writing is what makes this story blossom: it’s

incredibly sensual and lyrical, lush and languid, like the tropics themselves. Altogether Toucan

Whisper, Toucan Sing is an easy, pleasing read for the mind and senses.

–Sanford J. Greenburg Associates Scouting Report

The transitions in point of view are deft and impressive, and the characterizations are

successful; Wintner endows his hotel workers with telling perceptions. With Toucan Whisper,

Toucan Sing, Wintner succeeds in creating a roguish, self-absorbed protagonist who becomes

increasingly likeable in the company of his peers and the context of his times.

—Edward Keane, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY, for The Library Journal

Toucan Whisper, Toucan Sing blends escapism with social consciousness. It’s a formula

that served Wintner well in The Prophet Pasqual and other novels set it exotic vacation locales;

here again Wintner provides sex, lush description of beautiful places and a peek into the

machinery that makes such places work.

—Publisher’s Weekly

Robert Wintner

Robert Wintner’s novels and short fiction are literary with a fresh twist, entertaining, ironic and insightful. Though literature in the U.S. struggles upstream, it endures in the classic vein.

Robert Wintner’s short fiction has appeared in Hawaii Review (University of Hawaii) and Sports Illustrated. His historical novel, In a Sweet Magnolia Time, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a PEN/Faulkner Award. Los Angeles production companies optioned his sailing novel Whirlaway and the motorcycle adventure The Modern Outlaws for film rights.

Robert Wintner is Executive Producer and a key player in The Dark Hobby from Paradise Filmworks, on location at tropical reef systems around the world. The campaign to end aquarium trade devastation on reefs around the world, begins in Hawaii with Hawaiian cultural practitioners on the front lines.

Wintner lives on Maui with wife Anita, Cookie the dog, Yoyo, and Coco, Scooter, Fufu the cats.

Whirlaway, the rule of the sea

“A daring look behind the scenes of tourism in Hawaii. Passages depicting open-sea crossings are vivid, and the cameos of mainland tourists are dead-on.”—Publishers Weekly

As a Maui County Library Hot Pick and Beach Book of the Month Club Main Selection, Whirlaway resounds among charter crews.

NOTE: PG 17, this one, so fasten your seatbelts & prepare for heavy weather. We’re going in. Not for the faint-hearted of any age.

Other Books

News & Blog

The Campaign To End the Aquarium Trade In Hawaii Surges Ahead

Oct 27, 2025

Aquarium trade extraction may end on Hawaii reefs this year as advocates mount a multi-flank approach. Two bills in the State Legislature would end aquarium permits here this year and freeze existing permits pending a comprehensive, sustainable management plan from…

Phasing Out Live Export of Hawaii Reef Wildlife

Oct 27, 2025

Hawaii is the only state in the U.S. to allow aquarium extraction with no limits. The United Nations‘ Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and its 175 member countries recognize the international wildlife trade as an ecological and economic…

Excerpt of Reefdog: A Novel

Oct 27, 2025

A lean and sun-browned man slithers in the shallows easily as an eel after fry, till he draws his legs under and stands, taller than the first organisms walking out of the sea but with original intent—to improve his niche, on land. With his hair wetted to his neck, a…