Brazil-Maru
A novel by Karen Tei Yamashita

One of the Village Voice 25 Best Books of the Year

"Brazil-Maru is warm, compassionate, engaging, and thought-provoking."

- The Washington Post

This engrossing, multi-generational novel tells the story of a group of Japanese immigrants that attempts to create a utopia in the Brazilian rain forest; it also uncovers the little-known history of the large Japanese-Brazilian community.

After arriving in 1925 on the Brazil-Maru to farm and create a new civilization, three generations of Japanese immigrants first survive the hardships of clearing the land, then endure suspicion and humiliation during World War II. As Kantaro Uno, their self-appointed charismatic leader, persuades this group of socialist Christians to embrace his passions for baseball, painting, and chickens, they struggle with the issue of maintaining their identity while adapting to a new world. Karen Yamashita’s prose resonates with respect for the nobility of failure, and with tremendous affection for her characters.

The success of Karen Tei Yamshita’s first novel, Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, has made the publication of Brazil-Maru a much anticipated event. "A new visionary voice," wrote the San Francisco Chronicle, and The New York Times called her writing "fluid and poetic." Through the Arc of the Rain Forest was also awarded a Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award and was the first small press book to win the prestigious Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize.

Karen Tei Yamashita went to Brazil in 1975 on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship after graduating from Carleton College. She stayed ten years and has since returned to her native California with her Brazilian family. Her fiction has appeared in The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and her plays have been produced at Highways in Santa Monica and at The Northwest Asian Theater in Seattle.