|
Brazil-Maru
Novel
by Karen Tei Yamashita
Village Voice Best
Book of the Year
Minnesota Monthly Holiday
Reading Feature
Washington Post :
“Brazil-Maru is
warm, compassionate, engaging, and thought-provoking.”
This engrossing, multi-generational novel tells the
story of a group of Japanese immigrants who attempt
to create a utopia in the Brazilian rain forest, and
it uncovers the little-known history of the large Japanese-Brazillian
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 Tei Yamashita's prose resonates with respect
for the nobility of failure, and with tremendous affection
for her characters. The success of her 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 an American Book Award and was the first
small press book to win the prestigious Janet Heidinger
Kafka Prize.
Also
by this author:
| 
