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The Ocean in the Closet
Novel by Yuko Taniguchi
"Yuko Taniguchi has created a beautiful and poignant novel that adroitly spans generations and continents to explore the intricate workings of the human heart in times of war and peace."—Chitra Divakaruni
A lovely paean to the strength and resilience of the young and the capacity for love and forgiveness in their elders, Yuko Taniguchi's debut novel is a call for peace and understanding in dark times.
9-year-old Helen Johnson can't understand why her mother locks Helen and her brother in the closet of their 1975 California home or why her father, recently returned from Vietnam, seems so distant. On the other side of the ocean, Helen's great-uncle Hideo still struggles with the loss of his sister who became a comfort woman to American soldiers after the bombing of Hiroshima destroyed the family silk farm and left the Takagawa family broken and scattered.
When Helen travels to Japan to meet Hideo they start to unravel the circumstances of her mother's adoption from Japan and the role that both World War II and the Vietnam War play in her family's legacy. Helen's journey and her boundless hope begin to bridge the fissures keeping her family apart as she sifts through the complex emotional sediment left to the children and grandchildren of war.
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