Author: Ana Johns
Published: May 28th 2019 by Park Row
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
There was truth within the magical stories Tori’s father had told. Stories which never grew old and took on a life of their own yet always included a blue pebbled street, a tea merchant and his beautiful daughter, a pathway of lanterns, a tree, and of heartache and hope. It was not until, as he lies dying, a letter is shared and secrets revealed. What Tori did not know was there had always been hidden truths in his tales which has now led a grieving daughter on a journey to a life-before-a-life.
Told in an alternating style encompassing the harsh realities of 1957 Japan and current day where Tori Kovac, an investigative journalist, travels to Japan to find Naoko, a woman who was her father’s first love. A love not allowed between an American serviceman and the daughter of a tea merchant determined to rebuild his business by arranging a marriage between his daughter and the son of a wealthy and powerful family.
The letter revealed an unknown daughter. A sister Tori never knew, and in response to the deep loss of her father, she is determined to find this woman. A woman that is half her father, someone who could help her to fill in the blanks and can share her stories. What she did not expect was a harsher reality of what Naoko had to endure. Of a time and place which was cruel to pregnant seventeen-year-old girls who carry a half American babies.
Carved out of true stories, there is a heart-wrenching authenticity to this book. A never wanting to let go of Tori or Naoko, or the countless other women who had to suffer, yet there is a knowing they are at peace after this dark piece of history has been told.
Told in an alternating style encompassing the harsh realities of 1957 Japan and current day where Tori Kovac, an investigative journalist, travels to Japan to find Naoko, a woman who was her father’s first love. A love not allowed between an American serviceman and the daughter of a tea merchant determined to rebuild his business by arranging a marriage between his daughter and the son of a wealthy and powerful family.
The letter revealed an unknown daughter. A sister Tori never knew, and in response to the deep loss of her father, she is determined to find this woman. A woman that is half her father, someone who could help her to fill in the blanks and can share her stories. What she did not expect was a harsher reality of what Naoko had to endure. Of a time and place which was cruel to pregnant seventeen-year-old girls who carry a half American babies.
Carved out of true stories, there is a heart-wrenching authenticity to this book. A never wanting to let go of Tori or Naoko, or the countless other women who had to suffer, yet there is a knowing they are at peace after this dark piece of history has been told.
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