Free of Malice
Liz Lazarus, 2016
Mitchell Cove Publishing
274 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780990937401
Summary
Laura Holland awakes in the middle of the night to see a stranger standing in her bedroom doorway. She manages to defend herself from the would-be rapist, though he threatens to return as he retreats.
Traumatized with recurring nightmares, Laura seeks therapy and is exposed to a unique treatment called EMDR. She also seeks self-protection—buying a gun against the wishes of her husband.
When Laura learns she could have gone to prison had she shot her fleeing assailant, she decides to write a hypothetical legal case using the details of that night. She enlists the help of a criminal defense lawyer, Thomas Bennett, who proves to be well versed in the justice system but has an uncanny resemblance to her attacker.
As the two work together to develop the story, Laura's discomfort escalates, particularly when Thomas seems to know more about that night than he should. Reality and fiction soon merge as her real life drama begins to mirror the fiction she’s trying to create.
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Valdosta, Georgia, USA
• Education—B.I.E., Georgia Institute of Technology; M.B.A., Northwestern University
• Currently—lives in Brookhaven, Georgia
Liz Lazarus is the author of Free of Malice, a psychological, legal thriller loosely based on her personal experience and a series of ‘what if’ questions that trace the after effects of a foiled attack; a woman healing, and grappling with the legal system to acknowledge her right to self-defense.
She was born in Valdosta, Georgia, graduated from Georgia Tech with an engineering degree and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern with an MBA in their executive master’s program. She spent most of her career at General Electric’s Healthcare division and is currently a Managing Director at a strategic planning consulting firm in addition to being an author.
Free of Malice is her debut novel, set in Atlanta, and supplemented by extensive research with both therapists and criminal defense attorneys. She currently lives in Brookhaven, GA, with her fiance, Richard, and their very spoiled orange tabby, Buckwheat. (From the author.)
Visit the author's webpage.
Follow Liz on Facebook...and Twitter.
Book Reviews
After a woman is attacked in her own home, she struggles to return to her "before" life in this cathartic and empowering suspense thriller.
Kirkus Reviews
In a literary world too filled with formula writing and overdone approaches, Lazarus’s ability to inject more than an element of surprise to keep readers guessing and on their toes is her finest achievement—and what sets Free of Malice apart from any potential competitors, making it a worthy and riveting pick for any who look for legal thrillers firmly rooted in psychological depth.
D Donovan - Midwest Book Review
Utterly absorbing! Integrates state-of-the-art psychotherapy techniques with all the elements of a classic thriller.
Stephanie Foxman, EMDR- trained psychotherapist
A gritty, intense, engaging Southern "courtroom" drama with gripping suspense! Free of Malice provides an interesting and provocative insight into our courts and jury system through a skillfully constructed narrative and with an authentic feel and voice to the characters. It's a page-turner that held my attention throughout. This novel not only provides a wealth of education on gun laws and ownership, but it also confirms the importance of the 2nd Amendment as an equalizer for women.
Ken Baye, Owner, Stoddard's Range & Guns
Discussion Questions
1. MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP
From your experience, did Laura and Chris have a realistic relationship?
2. COUNSELING & EMDR
Were you surprised that Laura resisted professional counseling? Prior to reading the book, were you familiar with EMDR? Have you experienced or do you know someone who has tried or practices EMDR? Do you believe counseling would play a significant role toward recovery for someone in Laura’s position? When do you believe therapy isn’t necessary?
3. GUNS & SELF-DEFENSE
Laura opted to "process" her way through her recovery. Part of that process included figuring out ways to protect herself. For Laura, that meant learning how to use a gun and buying her own handgun. Have you ever shot a handgun? If someone disturbed the privacy of your home, could you see yourself buying a gun and doing target practice? Why or why not?
4. JURY SELECTION
Have you ever served on a jury? After reading the detailed account of how juries are chosen, did you learn more about the process of jury selection? If you’ve served on a jury, are you more or less surprised that you were chosen? Why or why not?
5. VICTIM MENTALITY
Throughout the book, Laura demonstrates a variety of ways of comforting herself. How does Laura comfort herself? What do you see as the relationship between self-comfort and being a victim? Do you believe Laura handled being a victim effectively? What do you think she should have done differently?
6. HYPER-VIGILANCE
After the attack, Laura struggled to figure out if she was being hyper-vigilant or too trusting in the face of what she saw as clear evidence against the people around her. Do you believe Laura handles her emotions well or does she rein them in too closely—or, at some points, does she go too far? If so, where does she cross the line?
7. RACE
What surprised you about the role race played in the way Laura’s story played out?
8. TABOO TOPICS
Free of Malice touches on multiple contemporary issues including race, gun rights and victim’s rights. Most of us refrain from discussion of those issues in polite conversation. What is the value in having open discussion of topics like race and gun rights?
9. ENDING
Were you surprised by the ending? What different ending could you imagine for this book? Was the ending too “happily-ever-after”?
10. MOVIE CASTING
If Free of Malice were made into a movie, whom would you cast as Laura, Thomas, Barbara and Chris?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Crooked River
Valerie Geary, 2014
HarperCollins
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062326607
Summary
Still grieving the sudden death of their mother, Sam McAlister and her younger sister, Ollie, move from the comforts of Eugene to rural Oregon to live in a meadow in a teepee under the stars with Bear, their beekeeper father.
But soon after they arrive, a young woman is found dead floating in Crooked River, and the police arrest their eccentric father for the murder.
Fifteen-year-old Sam knows that Bear is not a killer, even though the evidence points to his guilt. Sam embarks on a desperate hunt to save him and keep her damaged family together.
Ollie, too, knows that Bear is innocent. The Shimmering have told her so. One followed her home from her mom's funeral and refuses to leave. Now, another is following Sam. Both spirits warn Ollie: the real killer is out there, closer and more dangerous than either girl can imagine. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1983 (?)
• Raised—Albany, Oregon, USA
• Education—B.A., Vanguard University of Southern California
• Currently—lives in Portland, Oregon
Valerie Geary is a full-time writer who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her first novel, Crooked River, was released in 2014 and selected for the November 2014 Indie Next List. Crooked River has been internationally published in France, Germany and Belgium. Her short stories have appeared in Weekly Rumpus, Day One, Menda City Review, Boston Literary Magazine, Foundling Review, the UK publication Litro, and others. (From the publisher.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
[Valerie Geary] captures her readers at once and doesn’t let them go.
Oklahoma City Oklahoman
[A] swift and beguiling read… [Sam] is finely drawn, an update on Harper Lee’s Scout
BookPage
The narrative skill displayed is impressive… readers will have a hard time putting this one down.
Booklist
Crooked River is as much a coming-of-age novel as it is a well-paced mystery…Geary takes teenage Sam through a looking-glass and then pulls her back with an adult’s sense of loyalty and compassion--a journey equally worthwhile for all of us.
Shelf Awareness
Unfortunately, much of the paranormal subplot is tepid; Geary is a solid writer, though...[the] book's core mystery is also disappointing—the identification of the dead woman's killer doesn't feel revelatory or surprising. A slightly jumbled debut that, while well-written, could have gone places it didn't quite manage to reach.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. From the beginning of the novel, we are presented with two different narrators: Sam and Ollie. What were your first impressions of these sisters based on the initial chapters of the book? How would you describe their personalities? What impact do you think the use of dual, first-person narration had on the story?
2. Talk about the character of Frank “Bear” McAlister. How does your impression of him change from the beginning to the end of the book, if it does at all?
3. Sam makes numerous references to Bear’s bee farm and bee-keeping practices in Crooked River. Why do you think bees feature so prominently in the novel? What is significant about their behaviors? Can you draw any parallels between the actions of the characters in the book and how bee colonies operate?
4. Consider the examples of parent-child relationships in the novel. How do you think Sam and Ollie’s relationship with their mother and Bear is similar to their relationship with Franny and Zeb? How is it different? What do you think the author could be suggesting about what makes a good parent? Furthermore, do you think Bear can be considered a good parent? Explain why or why not.
5. Think about Travis’ relationship with his parents. Compare and contrast it to Sam and Ollie’s relationship with the adults in their lives. How would you describe the Roths’ love for their children? Do you feel empathy for the Roth family? Or to any member of the Roth family in particular? Why or why not?
6. What do you think is significant about Ollie’s attachment to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? Why do you think she allows this specific book to speak for her?
7. Ollie refuses to use her voice after her mother dies, Taylor Bellweather is denied the opportunity to speak once she is murdered, and at the end of the novel Sam and Ollie’s mother stresses the importance of telling people you love them—the role of “voice” is very important. Why do you think the novel places an emphasis on a person’s capability to use his or her voice?
8. Describe your feelings toward Deputy Santos throughout the investigation of Taylor Bellweather’s death. Could you understand her reasoning behind wanting Sam to accept that Bear was guilty? Why or why not?
9. What effect does the landscape and setting of rural Oregon have on the overall mood of the story?
10. Although the novel centers around a mystery, how does it exhibit the elements of a ghost story and a coming-of-age story as well? Are there elements of other literary genres present in the novel? If so, what are they?
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
My Mrs. Brown
William Norwich, 2016
Simon & Schuster
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781442386075
Summary
From William Norwich, the well-known fashion writer and editor, an unforgettable novel about a woman with a secret who travels to New York City on a determined quest to buy a special dress that represents everything she wants to say about that secret…and herself.
Sometimes a dress isn’t just a dress.
Emilia Brown is a woman of a certain age. She has spent a frugal, useful, and wholly restrained life in Ashville, a small town in Rhode Island.
Overlooked especially by the industries of fashion and media, Mrs. Brown is one of today’s silent generations of women whose quiet no-frills existences would make them seem invisible.
She is a genteel woman who has known her share of personal sorrows and quietly carried on, who makes a modest living cleaning and running errands at the local beauty parlor, who delights in evening chats with her much younger neighbor, twenty-three-year-old Alice Danvers.
When the grand dame of Ashville passes away, Mrs. Brown is called upon to inventory her estate and comes across a dress that changes everything. This isn’t a Cinderella confection; it’s a simple yet exquisitely tailored Oscar de la Renta sheath and jacket—a suit that Mrs. Brown realizes, with startling clarity, will say everything she has ever wished to convey.
She must have it.
And so Mrs. Brown begins her odyssey to purchase the dress. For not only is the owning of the Oscar de la Renta a must, the intimidating trip to purchase it on Madison Avenue is essential as well. If the dress is to give Mrs. Brown a voice, then she must prepare by making the daunting journey—both to the emerald city and within herself.
Timeless, poignant, and appealing, My Mrs. Brown is a novel for every mother in the world, every woman who ever wanted the perfect dress, and every child who wanted to give it to her. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1955-56
• Where—Norwich, Connecticut, USA
• Education—B.A., Hampshire College; M.F.A., Columbia University
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York
William Norwich is a writer, editor, and video and television reporter. He is the author of the novels My Mrs. Brown (2016) and Learning to Drive (1996), as well as the children’s book Molly and the Magic Dress (2006).
Norwich was born William Goldberg in Norwich, Connecticut. He changed his name after an article proposal he submitted to a magazine was rejected. He resubmitted it, this time under the WASPy sounding nom de plume, William Norwich, and it was accepted. "So," he said, "we changed our name. I became William Norwich from Goldberg, Connecticut."
Norwich earned his Bachelor's from Hampshire College and after graduation briefly taught grade school. He then enrolled at Columbia University, earning an MFA. Although he wanted to be a poet, he ended up working in New York City—first in public relations, then writing profiles for Earl Blackwell's Celebrity Register, and eventually, in 1985, as a protege to famed celebrity columnist Suzy Smith at the Daily News.
Over the years, he has written and edited for the New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Town & Country, Architectural Digest, and New York magazine. He is currently the editor for fashion and interior design at Phaidon Press. (Adapted from New York magazine and from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Modest, mannerly, and well-behaved Mrs. Emilia Brown is a widow of a certain age. She lives in small town Rhode Island, owns her own home and rents out half of it. She also works as the cleaner at a beauty shop and tends to dress in shades of brown and gray. How then, does this quiet soul end up zooming around Manhattan in a red Mercedes convertible? Don’t worry, she is not driving the car! She has never been to the city before and wouldn’t know how to cope with the traffic. But she is there on a mission. READ MORE.
Keddy Ann Outlaw - LitLovers
Meet a delightfully old-fashioned heroine in My Mrs. Brown…Even if you find Mrs. Brown anachronistic, with a gentle conservatism of an age long-gone, you come to like and respect her. Then, you come to love her…Goodness really is its own reward, says Norwich’s gentle-hearted book. Better yet, sometimes goodness is rewarded.
BookPage
An unassuming yet magnetic older woman becomes possessed by the notion of acquiring an Oscar de la Renta dress.... What remains a mystery until the very end of the novel is the occasion for which she needs such a thing.... Like its main character, appealing, sweet, old-fashioned—and, at heart, very sad.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add the publisher's questions if and when they're available. In the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to kick off a discussion for My Mrs. Brown...then take off on your own:
1. In what ways would you say Mrs. Brown is an anachronism in today's world? Do you know anyone like her?
2. In what way can this book be described as a modern fable? Or...a fairy tale (minus the fairies)?
3. What is it about the black dress that makes Mrs. Brown "have to have it"? Have you ever encountered something—a dress or other object—that completely captivated you?
4. Did you figure out (or suspect) the reason Emilia desires the dress? Or were you surprised?
5. Of all the kind souls who aid Mrs. Brown in her quest, who is your favorite and why? Who is the most important in helping her?
6. Here is what author William Norwich says he wants his take away to be for My Mrs. Brown:
...that being an American grown-up is actually an honorable thing, that balance is OK, that loneliness is inevitable and that underneath the superficial there is a life for all people. And it’s not going to be what you see or what they say. Quiet people are the ones you want to love and know. Quietude is good after all the noise we’ve gone through culturally.
Do you think Norwich succeeds in what he wants his readers to come away with?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Stopped Heart
Julie Myerson, 2016
HarperCollins
512 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062409324
Summary
[A] beautifully written, yet deeply chilling, novel of psychological suspense explores the tragedies—past and present—haunting a picturesque country cottage.
Mary Coles and her husband, Graham, have just moved to a cottage on the edge of a small village. The house hasn’t been lived in for years, but they are drawn to its original features and surprisingly large garden, which stretches down into a beautiful apple orchard. It’s idyllic, remote, picturesque: exactly what they need to put the horror of the past behind them.
One hundred and fifty years earlier, a huge oak tree was felled in front of the cottage during a raging storm. Beneath it lies a young man with a shock of red hair, presumed dead—surely no one could survive such an accident.
But the red-haired man is alive, and after a brief convalescence is taken in by the family living in the cottage and put to work in the fields. The children all love him, but the eldest daughter, Eliza, has her reservations. There’s something about the red-haired man that sits ill with her. A presence. An evil.
Back in the present, weeks after moving to the cottage and still drowning beneath the weight of insurmountable grief, Mary Coles starts to sense there’s something in the house. Children’s whispers, footsteps from above, half-caught glimpses of figures in the garden. A young man with a shock of red hair wandering through the orchard.
Has Mary’s grief turned to madness? Or have the events that took place so long ago finally come back to haunt her? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 2, 1960
• Where—Nottingham, England, UK
• Education—B.A., University of Bristol
• Currently—llives in
Julie Myerson (nee Pike) is an English author and critic. As well as writing both fiction and non-fiction books, she is also known for having written a long-running column in the Guardian entitled "Living with Teenagers" based on her own family experiences.
Education and journalism
Myerson studied English at Bristol University before working for the National Theatre. She has written a column for the Independent about her domestic trials including her partner, the screenwriter and director Jonathan Myerson, and their children Jacob (known as Jake), Chloe, and Raphael. Since then, she has written a column for the Financial Times about homes and houses. Myerson was a regular reviewer on the UK arts program Newsnight Review, on BBC Two.
Controversies
Julie Myerson was the anonymous author of "Living with Teenagers," a Guardian column and later nonfiction book that detailed the lives of a family with three teenage children. The column was stopped after one of the children was identified and was ridiculed at school, although Myerson had previously denied being the author three times to her own children. She admitted authorship only when it became so obvious there was no other option. After the Guardian confirmed the author of the series, it removed the articles from its website to "protect their privacy."
Myerson was also at the centre of a controversy in 2009 when details of her book The Lost Child: a True Story emerged; commentators criticized Myerson for what Minette Marrin in the Sunday Times, called her "betrayal not just of love and intimacy, but also of motherhood itself." Tim Lott called the book a "moral failure," adding "Julie has betrayed Jake for her own ambition."
Some critics, however, took the opposite view. The Guardian's Mark Lawson, a friend of Julie Myerson, called the book noble, saying that "the elegance and thoughtfulness of this book—and its warning of a fate that may overtake many parents—should not be lost in the extra-literary frenzy." The Observer's Kate Kellaway called the book rash but courageous, writing that Myerson had tried to "write honestly about a nightmarish situation and a subject that never seems to get the attention it deserves." The book was published in the U.S. in August 2009.
Fiction
Sleepwalking (1994) ♦ The Touch (1996) ♦ Me and the Fat Man (1998) ♦ Laura Blundy (2000) ♦ Something Might Happen (2003) ♦ The Story of You (2006) ♦ Out of Breath (2007) ♦ Then (2011) ♦ The Quickening (2013) ♦ The Stopped Heart (2016).
Nonfiction
Home: The Story of Everyone Who Lived In Our House (2004) ♦ Not A Games Person (2005) ♦ Living with Teenagers: 3 kids, 2 parents, 1 Hell of a Bumpy Ride (2008) ♦ The Lost Child (2009).
Recognition
Something Might Happen (2003) was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted both the W.H. Smith Literary Award and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Sleepwalking (2005) was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys (Mail on Sunday) Award.
(Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 4/17/2016.)
Book Reviews
The story is heart wrenching, unremittingly grisly…. A thriller and…a page-turner…. The Stopped Heart exposes the flesh of the lives cut in half, the pain and loves of the past, and why they are no less real than the present.
Independent (UK)
Myerson evokes mystery and madness, with glimpses into devastating events, the full extent of which are slowly and skillfully uncovered.
Vogue (UK)
This novel is beautifully written and cleverly told. And it’s almost completely terrifying…. Edge-of-your-seat suspense…. It’s the sort of book you cannot put down.
Guardian (UK)
In this hair-raiser, Mary Coles moves to a country cottage that seems too good to be true…and it turns out, she’s right. Goose-bumps ensue.
Cosmopolitan
[An] overlong novel from British author Myerson focuses on two families living in the same village near Ipswich in Essex, separated by 150 years.... [The author] fails to unite the two stories into a suspenseful whole.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) On the first page, it’s clear that something indescribably horrific has happened…. This novel is impossible to put down; it will be read compulsively to learn the what of what has happened, if not the why. A stunner.
Booklist
Myerson twines a delightfully twisted tale, exposing the dark underbelly of love and the gaping, raw wounds of grief. She deftly holds back secrets, doling them out carefully, as if the reader, too, can only face so much horror at a time. By turns terrifying and heartbreaking; an enthralling spine-chiller.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add the publisher's questions if and when they're made available. In the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to kick off a discussion for The Stopped Heart...then take off on your own:
1. How did you experience The Stopped Heart? Were you thoroughly terrified? Was it a page-turner or nail-biter for you?
2. Julie Myerson doesn't insert obvious breaks (not even an asterisk) when she switches from past to present. Did you find it difficult at times to tell which time frame you were in? Why does the author not define the two eras more clearly?
3. Myerson doesn't spare readers when revealing the tragedy that faces Mary and Graham Coles. Myerson releases information slowly; nonetheless, how painful was it for you to read?
4. The novel's prose is remarkable in the way it limns the shape of grief: Mary, for instance, is "struck by how pointless it felt to push a metal hook with an ornament hanging off it through a hole in her ear." What are some other passages which struck you as particularly descriptive of sadness?
5. The red-haired young man appears to Mary and disappears. But rather than be alarmed, she welcomes the hauntings. Why?
6. Talk about James Dix—how he appears out of a violent storm; how he insinuates himself into the center of the family, and how he gains control over Eliza. Who, or what, is he?
7. Just as Mary senses the cottage's former lives, Lottie makes references to its future ones. Consider the name Merricoles. Where else do past and future intersect with one another?
8. How do the two stories mirror one another? Consider the inclusion of abduction, cruelty, sexual obsession, and the impossibility of keeping children safe.
9. What does Myerson suggest about past evil? Does she offer a way to help us right past wrongs or offer or an explanation regarding the nature of evil? Or not?
10. Can any marriage withstand the kind of devastating tragedy the Coles have experienced? How would you describe the state of their marriage at the beginning of The Heart Stopped? What about Eddie's attentions to Mary? What were your initial feelings toward their budding attraction to one another?
11. Do the twin plots work as a narrative device in The Stopped Heart? Critics aren't always in agreement on this point. What do you think?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Translation of Love
Lynne Kutsukake, 2016
Knopf Doubleday
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385540674
Summary
An emotionally gripping portrait of post-war Japan, where a newly repatriated girl must help a classmate find her missing sister.
After spending the war years in a Canadian internment camp, thirteen-year-old Aya Shimamura and her father are faced with a gut-wrenching choice: Move east of the Rocky Mountains or go “back” to Japan
Barred from returning home to the west coast and bitterly grieving the loss of Aya’s mother during internment, Aya’s father signs a form that enables the government to deport them.
But war-devastated Tokyo is not much better. Aya’s father struggles to find work, compromising his morals and toiling long hours.
Meanwhile Aya, born and raised in Vancouver, is something of a pariah at her school, bullied for being foreign and paralyzed when asked to communicate in Japanese. Aya’s alienation is eventually mitigated by one of her principal tormenters, a willful girl named Fumi Tanaka, whose older sister has mysteriously disappeared.
When a rumor surfaces that General MacArthur, who is overseeing the Occupation, might help citizens in need, Fumi enlists Aya to compose a letter asking him to find her beloved sister.
The letter is delivered into the reluctant hands of Corporal Matt Matsumoto, a Japanese American serving with the Occupation forces, whose endless job is translating the thousands of letters MacArthur receives each week. Matt feels an affinity toward Fumi but is largely powerless, and the girls decide to take matters into their own hands, venturing into the dark and dangerous underside of Tokyo’s Ginza district.
Told through rich, interlocking storylines, The Translation of Love mines this turbulent period to show how war irrevocably shapes the lives of people on both sides—and yet the novel also allows for a poignant spark of resilience, friendship, and love that translates across cultures and borders to stunning effect. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1951-52
• Where—Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Education—M.A., University of Toronto
• Currently—lives in Toronto, Ontario
Lynne Kutsukake, a third-generation Japanese-Canadian, was born in Toronto, Ontario. She earned a master's degree in East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto and studied Japanese literature in Japan, eventually becoming a librarian in Toronto.
Her short fiction has appeared in Grain, Prairie Fire, Dalhousie Review, Windsor Review, and Ricepaper. She wrote the short story, "Mating," a finalist for the 2010 Journey Prize, while taking a writing class at the University of Toronto. The Translation of Love, her first novel, appeared in 2016. The author lives in Toronto. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Lynne Kutsukake, a third-generation Japanese-Canadian and first-time novelist, conjures the voices of [an] agonized time with graceful simplicity.... The plainness of Kutsukake’s prose can verge on threadbare, with patches of earnest research peeking through, but these lapses are balanced by moments of indelible poignancy.
Janice P. Nimura - New York Times Book Review
[A]lthough the stakes are never quite high enough for the novel to gather significant momentum, many scenes pack an emotional punch and are enhanced by the author’s clarity and restraint.... The Translation of Love offers rich insights into an underreported period in history, despite holding some of its subject matter at arm’s-length. Certainly, there is plenty to suggest that Kutsukake’s next novel can deliver on the promise of this one.
Trilby Kent - Toronto Globe and Mail
Kutsukake is an accomplished writer, adroitly handling the dark effects of discrimination, hunger, poverty, and disease after the war.... [A]n engaging and compelling read.
Asian Review of Books
(Starred review.) Kutsukake’s moving debut novel focuses on the intertwining stories of several protagonists in post–World War II Tokyo.... Kutsukake’s story is consistently engaging, though a smattering of unlikely plot points can be distracting. The result is a memorable story of hope and loneliness with a cathartic ending.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) This poignant first novel is set in postWorld War II Japan during the American occupation. Told from multiple viewpoints, it is a story of nationality and identity, family and friendship, love and loss.... [A] fresh perspective on life in postwar Japan. —Catherine Coyne, Mansfield P.L., MA
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Kutsukake skillfully weaves these characters’ varied perspectives together to create a vivid and memorable account of ordinary people struggling to recover from the devastations of war.
Booklist
(Starred review.) Emotionally rich without turning saccharine, twisting without losing its grounding in reality, Kutsukake's novel is classic historical fiction at its best. A vivid delight chronicling a fascinating—and little-discussed—chapter in world history.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're made available. In the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to kick off a discussion for The Translation of Love...then take off on your own:
1. Discuss the devastation of the war and its effects on the survivors who are caught between a painful past and an uncertain future.
2. How are the Japanese treated by their American occupiers? How prevalent is discrimination of the Japanese towards Americans and the Americans toward Japanese? What do you make of the treatment, for instance, of Aya at the hands of her classmates?
3. Five different voices make up this novel. Do you find one more compelling or sympathetic than others?
4. Why do their relatives resent Aya and her father's move to Toykyo?
5. Talk about Matt's presence in Tokyo. Consider the irony of his internment in America—where he was considered a foreign threat—and his position now among the ranks of the victors. Where do his sense of identity and his sympathies lie?
6. What do the letters to General MacArthur reveal about the state of the Japanese and their society? When one letter writer asks, "how should a man live?" what were your thoughts?
7. What do you make of Sumiko, who was raised to be "proper," but who feels the thrill of escaping convention to flirt with danger in a dance hall? Why does Matt decide to help Fumi find her?
8. What does the book's title, "The Translation of Love," mean in the context of the story?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)