Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet\Keiko, englische Ausgabe
Set in the ethnic neighborhoods of Seattle during World War II and
Japanese American internment camps of the era, the times and places
are brought [stirringly] to life (Jim Tomlinson, author of
"Things Kept, Things Left Behind").
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel,
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a
crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to
Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but
now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings
of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to
internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner
opens a Japanese parasol.
This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the
height of the war, when young Henry's world is a jumble of
confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with
the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While
"scholarshipping" at the exclusive Rainier Elementary,
where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young
Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews,
and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship - and
innocent love - that transcends the long-standing prejudices of
their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept
up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are
left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their
promise to each other will be kept.
Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged
to Keiko. In the hotel's dark dusty basement he begins looking
for signs of the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost
object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry
is still trying to find his voice - words that might explain the
actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the
gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that
might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.
Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in
American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an
extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and
Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story
teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.
Jamie Ford wuchs in der Nähe von Seattles Chinatown auf. Seine chinesischen Verwandten nannten ihn "Ji Mai", was bald zu "Jamie" wurde. Er ist Absolvent der Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Jamie Ford lebt in Montana, USA.
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