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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.
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