In Japan, a teenage girl is struggling-- and writing to a future anonymous reader about it in a diary. Ten years later the diary, along with letters in Japanese and French, wash ashore in a metal lunchbox on the coast of British Columbia. The woman who finds it sets out to identify the girl to see how she's fared in the intervening years. From kamikaze pilots to zen buddhism to horticulture to erasing yourself from the internet-- this novel weaves themes and places together expertly. Chosen as UW-Madison's 2013 Go Big Read selection.
Date of publication:
2013