Dutton
Fifty Words for Rain: A GMA Book Club Pick
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From debut author Asha Lemmie, "a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together." --Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Nightingale
Kyoto, Japan, 1948. "Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko "Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin. The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond--a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it--a battle that just might cost her everything. Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free.
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Book Details
ISBN:
9781524746384
EAN:
9781524746384
Binding:
Paperback
Pages:
464
Authors:
Asha Lemmie
Publisher:
Dutton
Published Date: 2021-08-06
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What a sweeping epic. I’m loathe to give anything away—this book is one you have to read for yourself.Get ready for an unexpected and beautiful ride.
Very unique story well written with interesting twists and turns. For the end I was expecting something else. The ending didn’t please me. I guess I was expecting something else. Little confusing the mix of reality with fantasy in some parts.
I don’t wrote many reviews and this will be short. This definitely takes you out of your world to another one we could never know; the writing is surprising and you can feel the ebb and flow like the tide or like waves; Ahsa has you following her rhythm until the surprising end. Yes sometimes the story jumps ahead but then there is never a dull moment.
I absolutely love this book, it became one of my favorites. It arrived on time.
I thought the first 3/4 of this book were terrific. I was engaged in all the characters in the story and found it easy to pick up and read. I was very disappointed with the last 50 pages of the book. I felt as though the ending went against everything that Nori had learned throughout her life. it made no sense to me that she chose family over her own potentially meaningful future with true love. It almost felt as if a different author wrote the last 50 pages and for that reason this is not a book I would recommend to somebody else.
