Tag: books

Mark Sakamoto’s — Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a memoir to two Canadian families — the Sakamotos from Vancouver and the MacLeans from the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St Lawrence. When war breaks out, Ralph MacLean enlists, and not long after he arrives in Hong Kong he is captured, and spends most of the war in a prison camp. Meanwhile, the British Columbian government is eager to remove the prosperous Japanese community from Powell Street and expels them from their homes into the B.C. interior as farm labour. A generation later, these two families come together when their children marry.

This is an emotional journey, beautifully written that I didn’t want to end.

Anita Rau Badami’s — The hero’s walk *****

What happens when you lose the most precious person in your life — a daughter? This is the agonizing dilemma Sripathi, living in India, finds himself in when he learns of his daughter and husband’s death in Canada. Soon their daughter, Nandana arrives and Sripathi has to come to terms with his loss.

Tell it to the trees is equally as good, but Hero’s Walk is Badami’s champion for pulling at the heart strings.

Carol Jones’ — The boy with blue trousers *****

In 1856, Little Cat feels disgruntled because working with silk and picking mulberry leaves never stops while her twin brother, Ah Yong gets to relax after a day’s work. But when she is drowning in a life and death situation, it is Ah Yong she hopes can help her. Will she evade the possibility of death?

Meanwhile, Violet has fled from the gossip in London and works as a governess in Robe Town, a small coastal South Australian port. But once her past catches up with her, she is desperate to escape along with the hundreds of Chinese who flood the town on the way to the goldfields.

What does the future hold for these two women from opposite sides of the world?

Banana Yoshimoto’s — Hardboiled/Hard luck & The Lake *****

Hardboiled and Hard Luck are two novellas in one book. The first story has a supernatural element beginning with the story teller’s walk through a forest and arriving at her hotel in a small village. In the forest, she already has a sense that something strange is in the air. The second story finds Kuni in hospital on a ventilator with her sister remembering their past closeness and trying to come to terms with her eventual death. Continue reading “Banana Yoshimoto’s — Hardboiled/Hard luck & The Lake *****” →