2513 Jackson Ave
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
USA
Detroit native, Ana Johns, joins us to share her debut novel The Woman in the White Kimono.
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Event Details
Seating at the event will be first-come first-served. This event will be a standing-room crowd, so if you require a seat for medical reasons, please contact us in advance to make arrangements.
About the Book
Over ten thousands babies were born to American servicemen and Japanese women during the post-World War II occupation. Most of them (and their mothers) were ostracized and many were surrendered in shame to orphanages. This little documented history is at that heart of Ana Johns’s exquisitely-wrought debut novel, THE WOMAN IN THE WHITE KIMONO.
Romeo and Juliet meets Madama Butterfly as two elegant narratives intertwine: a twenty-first century investigative reporter embarks on the most personal story of her life—locating the truth about a woman with whom her father had a forbidden relationship more than a half century ago. As her father’s secret past unfolds, the truth will reveal as much about him as about the woman and baby he left behind.
Japan, 1957. Naoko Nakamura, only seventeen, has done the unthinkable—fallen in love with an American sailor she calls Hajime, despite her family’s plans for a respectable, arranged marriage with the son of her father’s business associate. Naoko, who wishes to honor both her family and her heart, is torn between her two marital options—until she discovers that she is pregnant and must go with her heart. It is a decision that will have crushing consequences, though, as she loses the respect and support of her family and community. Sixty years later, as American Tori Kovač cares for her beloved father in his final days, she learns a shocking truth about his life before he met her mother. Unanswered questions propel her to Japan in search of the woman in the photograph she finds among his possessions—and the half-sister she never knew she possessed.
About the Author
Ana Johns worked over twenty years in the creative arts field, as both a creative director and business owner, before turning her hand to fiction. Born and raised in metro Detroit, she now resides in Indianapolis with her family. THE WOMAN IN THE WHITE KIMONO is her first novel.
