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2004 Longlist

When the Emperor was Divine

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ABOUT
THE BOOK

When the Emperor was Divine paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family tree to evoke the deracination – both physical and emotional – of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters, each executed from a different point of view – the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family’s return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than four years in captivity – she has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. It is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Julie
Otsuka

Julie Otsuka was born and raised in California. She is the author of the novel When the Emperor Was Divine and a recipient of the Asian American Literary Award, the American Library Association Alex Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award For Fiction and a National Book Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist. She lives in New York City.

Julie Otsuka was born and raised in California. She is the author of the novel When the Emperor Was Divine and a recipient of the Asian American Literary Award, the American Library Association Alex Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award For Fiction and a National Book Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist. She lives in New York City.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
United States
Original Language
English
Author
Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf

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