Author:Julie Otsuka
'A compelling, powerful portrait of a terrible endurance. Terrific' The Times
Four months after Pearl Harbor, signs begin appearing up and down the West Coast instructing all persons of Japanese ancestry to report to 'assembly centers'. For one family - reclassified, virtually overnight, as unwelcome enemies - it is the beginning of a nightmare of oppression and alienation that will alter their lives forever.
There is the mother, reeling from the order to 'evacuate', and the daughter, travelling on the long train journey away from freedom. There is the son, who struggles to adapt to their new life in the dust of the Utah desert, and the father, who, after four bitter years in captivity, returns to his family a stranger.
Based on a true story, Julie Otsuka's powerful, deeply humane first novel tells of a forgotten generation who found themselves imprisoned in their own country, and evokes an unjustly overlooked episode in America's wartime history.
'Outstandingly accomplished and moving' Sunday Telegraph
'Exceptional' New Yorker
LONGLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE
WINNER OF THE ASIAN AMERICAN LITERARY AWARD 2003
WINNER OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ALEX AWARD 2003
A remarkable, beautifully written story of panic, prejudice and shame ... outstandingly accomplished and moving
—— Sunday TelegraphAn intense jewel of a book written with clarity and beauty
—— Marie ClaireVindicates the suffering of the Japanese in America . . . a blistering first novel
—— The Times Literary SupplementA compelling, powerful portrait of a terrible endurance. Terrific
—— The TimesExceptional
—— New YorkerAn excellent debut...a moving and powerfully told story of late coming-of-age and redemptive love
—— Literary ReviewTells the slowly unfolding story of Baines' journey of self-discovery with great subtlety
—— Sunday TimesQuinn has a cinematic eye for narrative scope... Like all good novels this book tells us something new
—— SpectatorAn absorbing tribute to the city and its unsung heroes
—— Holly Kyte , Sunday TelegraphIn a novel of cinematic denouements, Quinn has reclaimed an intriguing chapter of Liverpool's past
—— Emma Hagestadt , IndependentA real page-tuner
—— Mail on SundayHe [Anthony] hooks you in with his deep, complex characters; he meticulously sets the scene
—— www.thebookbag.co.uk