ISBN: 978-1419677670

Publisher: BookSurge Publishing  

Sachiko is a young Japanese girl who desperately wants to go and study in America. Ever since coming across a novel about a young author who immigrated to America at the age of eighteen, Sackiko is determined she can have the same fate. America is where she feels there is a whole new life ready to open up before her where she can study and learn. However her parents do not see it this way. Her father, Masaru, is a strong-minded man who prefers to devote his time to the Buddha’s room reading sutras instead of talking to his daughter about her future plans. Her mother, Koharu, is too worried for her daughter’s wellfare to allow her to go to the United States where she would not be able to look after her properly.

Sachiko tries many times to reason with her parents and finally has the right weapon to show them when a letter arrives for her saying it will be ok and she will be looked after by a well-to-do family. The letter says that the Carltons are more then willing to accept Sachiko into their home where she is able to live in return for doing some house work. When Sachiko tells her parents of this her father tells her: “If we said no once, it means no.” and her mother tells her she is too young to go travelling abroad.

In the end Sachiko manages to win them round after many years of arguing with her parents. She travels to the USA where she lives with the Carltons. Yet something doesn’t feel quite right about them and after a heated debate over politics and racial problems, Sachiko’s future is now uncertain.

Sachiko also meets Konrad with whom she shares a very uncertain relationship. Both of them want different things. Sachiko is shocked to later learn he is engaged to someone else.  Does this now mean the end?

This novel, set in the Vietnam era, is a very moving read about the life and love of a young Japanese girl. It is one that captures you from the first page and leaves the reader wanting more. The way it is written is very easy to understand which I like and keeps flowing at a good pace most of the way through. The only part I found a little annoying was the way in which the relationship dragged on between Sachiko and Konrad. Nothing ever seemed decided.

The ending was also a little strange and uncertain .

However this a wonderful memoir/novel and one that I found hard to put down. Definitely worth a read, it will bring a tear to your eye.