Otsuka is a master of the simple sentence, letting the purity of her words create shining glimpses of the women she introduces us too. They sail from Japan with hopes of a new life and are brutally introduced to the reality of a new world in 1900's California where they will struggle to make a life out of poverty, hardships, racism, and suspicion. As part of a multicultural influx at the time, the Japanese were a crucial part of building a new era in Californian history and were unceremoniously ripped from that fabric with little warning or objection at the time.
The characters are diverse, human, and will be familiar to anyone who has every faced uncertainty themselves. Beautifully crafted.
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