I 'm not sure where I heard of this book but it was hard to put down. It is really just a story of a seriously dysfunctional family - almost a little Flowers in the Attic - but in an unusual time and place. The Kamiza family is both ancient Japanese royalty and contemporary Japanese corruption. The matriarch of the family clings to the old ways in the sacred city of Kyoto but in 1951 Japan, her only daughter rebels. After dutifully producing an acceptable heir, she becomes pregnant by an African American soldier. Disowned by her family, she tries to live on her own but circumstances cause her to drop her 4 year old daughter, Nori, at the gates of the family estate. Ridiculed, abused and hidden in the attic, Nori's life is a horror until her honored half brother, Akira, returns to the family home. Using his power as the family heir, he frees her from the attic but her innocence and his musical genius put them at odds. And so the story goes - for many years a struggle between personal freedom and family responsibility. Certainly a common and safe theme for a first work by this author but the addition of the complication of skin color in this time and place makes it worth the read - even with the hurried ending.
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