When the emperor was divine Book

This historical novel is both gorgeous and heartbreaking. It follows a Japanese-American family that is sent to an internment camp in the Utah desert during World War II. The story follows the family as they get the news of the forced relocation, the trip to the camp, how they lived in the barracks, and finally, after more than three years of incarceration, their return home. I appreciated this novel because the Japanese internment is a dark chapter of U.S. history, and one that seems overlooked in school textbooks.

Otsuka's writing is beautiful, and her prose is so lyrical that at times it feels poetic. I had read her other novel The Buddha in the Attic, which follows a group of Japanese women immigrating to America, and it is also gorgeous and heartbreaking. I highly recommend both of these novels to anyone interested in the perspective of Japanese-Americans.

Favorite Quote
"We used to live in the desert. We used to wake, every morning, to the blast of a siren. We used to stand in line for our meals three times a day. We used to stand in line for our mail. We used to stand in line to get coal. We used to stand in line whenever we had to shower or use the latrine. We used to hear the wind hissing day and night through the sagebrush. We used to hear coyotes. We used to hear every word spoken by our neighbors on the other side of the thin barrack wall ... We used to try and imagine what it would be like when we finally returned home."