The Buddha in the Attic
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3.6 • 13 Ratings
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
'An understated masterpiece' San Francisco Chronicle
'Her wisdom is staggeringly beautiful, implicating each of us' Irish Times
After the First World War, a group of young women is brought by boat from Japan to San Francisco. They are picture brides, promised the American Dream, clutching photographs of the husbands they have yet to meet, imagining uncertain futures on unknown shores.
Struggling to master a new language and culture, they experience tremulous first nights as new wives, backbreaking work in the fields and in the homes of white women, and, later, the raising of children who will ultimately reject their heritage and their history.
And then war arrives once more.
Julie Otsuka tells their extraordinary, heartbreaking story in this spellbinding and poetic account of strangers lost and alone in a new and deeply foreign land.
'A tender, nuanced, empathetic exploration of the sorrows and consolations of a whole generation of women' Daily Telegraph
WINNER OF THE PEN FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION 2012
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2011
SHORTLISTED FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE 2011
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We were deeply moved by American author Julie Otsuka’s devastatingly beautiful novel about a group of Japanese mail-order brides who travel to America together at the beginning of the 20th century. Otsuka narrates this poetic work of historical fiction as one—and all—of the women, employing a series of concise confessions about topics like “Babies” and “Whites” to give us a sense of the group’s collective struggles and heartache. From the boat ride to San Francisco to the horrors of racism and internment, The Buddha in the Attic illustrates harrowing moments in the Japanese-American immigrant experience with intimacy and compassion.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the early 1900s, numerous Japanese mail order brides came to America seeking better lives. Otsuka's (When the Emperor was Divine) latest novel paints a delicate, heartbreaking portrait of these women. Using a collective first-person narrator ("On the boat we were mostly virgins."), Otsuka looks at the experiences of these "picture brides," organizing their stories into themes which include: their arrival in America; their first nights with their husbands; their interactions with white people; their children; and finally, the experience of World War II. Each section is beautifully rendered, a delicate amalgam of contrasting and complementary experiences. Readers will instantly empathize with these unnamed women as they adjust to American culture, a remarkable achievement considering Otsuka's use of the collective voice. Otsuka's prose is precise and rich with imagery. Readers will be inspired to draw their own parallels between the experiences of these women and the modern experience of immigration. By the time readers realize that the story is headed toward the internment of the Japanese, they are hopelessly engaged and will finish this exceptional book profoundly moved.
