Above the East China Sea : a novel
Record details
- ISBN: 0385350112 (Hardcover)
- ISBN: 9780385350112 (Hardcover)
- ISBN: 0385350112 : HRD
- ISBN: 9780385350112 : HRD
- ISBN: 9780385350112 (Hardcover)
- ISBN: 0385350112 (Hardcover)
- ISBN: 9780385350129 (eBook)
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Physical Description:
317 pages : maps ; 25 cm
print - Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
Content descriptions
General Note: | "This is a Borzoi book"--Title page verso. |
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references. |
Summary, etc.: | "Set on the island of Okinawa today and during World War II, this deeply moving and evocative novel tells the entwined stories of two teenage girls-an American and an Okinawan-whose lives are connected across 70 years by the shared experience of both profound loss and renewal. Luz, a contemporary U.S. Air Force brat, lives with her no-nonsense sergeant mother at Kadena Air Base. Luz's older sister, her best friend and emotional center, has died in the Afghan war. Unmoored by her death, unable to lean on her mother, Luz contemplates taking her own life. In 1945, Tamiko has lost everyone-the older sister she idolized and her entire family-and finds herself trapped between the occupying Japanese and the invading Americans whom she has been taught are demons that live to rape. On an island where the spirits of the dead are part of life and the afterworld reunites you with your family, suicide offers Tamiko the promise of peace. As Luz tracks down the story of her own Okinawan grandmother, she discovers that the ancestral spirits work as readily to save her as they do to help Tamiko find a resting place. And as these two stories unfold and intertwine, we see how war and American occupation have shaped and reshaped the lives of Okinawans"-- |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Family life Fiction Suicide Fiction Friendship Fiction Best friends Fiction War Fiction Okinawa Island (Japan) Fiction Orphans Fiction Daughters Fiction |
Genre: | Epic fiction. War stories. Epic fiction. Epic literature. |
Available copies
- 10 of 10 copies available at Bibliomation. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Southbury Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 10 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Southbury Public Library | BIRD (Text) | 34019131070377 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Above the East China Sea : A Novel
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Summary
Above the East China Sea : A Novel
A Seattle Times Best Book of the Year In her most ambitious, moving, and provocative novel to date, Sarah Bird makes a stunning departure. Above the East China Sea tells the entwined stories of two teenaged girls, an American and an Okinawan, whose lives are connected across seventy years by the shared experience of profound loss, the enduring strength of an ancient culture, and the redeeming power of family love. Luz James, a contemporary U.S. Air Force brat, lives with her strictly-by-the-rules sergeant mother at Kadena Air Base in Okianawa. Luz's older sister, her best friend and emotional center, has just been killed in the Afghan war. Unmoored by her sister's death and a lifetime of constant moving from base to base, Luz turns for the comfort her service-hardened mother cannot offer to the "Smokinawans," the "waste cases," who gather to get high every night in a deserted cove. When even pills, one-hitters, Cuervo Gold, and a growing crush on Jake Furusato aren't enough to soften the unbearable edge, the desolate girl contemplates taking her own life. In 1945, Tamiko Kokuba, along with two hundred of her classmates, is plucked out of her elite girls' high school and trained to work in the Imperial Army's horrific cave hospitals. With defeat certain, Tamiko finds herself squeezed between the occupying Japanese and the invading Americans. She believes she has lost her entire family, as well as the island paradise she so loved, and, like Luz, she aches with a desire to be reunited with her beloved sister. On an island where the spirits of the dead are part of life and your entire clan waits for you in the afterworld, suicide offers Tamiko the promise of peace. As Luz tracks down the story of her own Okinawan grandmother, she discovers that, if she surrenders to the most un brat impulse and allows herself to connect completely with a place and its people, the ancestral spirits will save not only Tamiko but her as well. Propelled by a riveting narrative and set at the very epicenter of the headline-grabbing clash now emerging between the great powers, Above the East China Sea is at once a remarkable chronicle of how war shapes the lives of conquerors as well as the conquered and a deeply moving account of family, friendship, and love that transcends time.