How Yamanaka can tell some of the most harrowing stories with such lyrically beautiful language is astonishing. In her latest novel, Hawaii’s best-known writer captures the story of three lost, tuberculosis-stricken sisters, sent away to an orphanage by their drunkenly abusive Portuguese father and their helplessly silent Japanese mother. The two younger sisters die, but their ghosts cannot find peace and continue to haunt and torment the eldest Anah for surviving. Even as Anah falls in love and finally starts a life away from the orphanage, eventually succeeding with a beekeeping business, the ghosts will not set her free.
Reviews: “In Celebration of Asian Pacific American Month: A Literary Survey,” The Bloomsbury Review, May/June 2006
“TBR‘s Contributing Editors’ Favorite Reads of 2006: These Are a Few of My Favorite Things … in Print, That Is …,” The Bloomsbury Review, November/December 2006
Readers: Adult
Published: 2006
A deft coming-of-age first novel about young Lovey Nariyoshi of Hilo, Hawai’i, trying to forge her identity amidst the mish-mash of Japanese American roots, coveted Barbie dolls, and pop music, surrounded by her best friend Jerome, her too-popular enemies, and her eccentric family.
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