Julie Otsuka

En un día soleado de 1942, en California, una mujer se detiene ante un cartel en la oficina de correos. Después de leerlo, regresa inmediatamente a casa y comienza a preparar un equipaje con todas sus pertenencias. El gobierno de Estados Unidos la ha declarado a ella y a su familia, como a otros miles de americanos de origen japones, enemigos en su propio pais y estan a punto de ser arrancados de su hogar. Un campo de internamiento, en el desierto de Utah, les espera. Julie Otsuka narra la historia de una familia a traves de cinco emotivas vivencias: la de la madre recordando el dia que tuvieron que partir, el largo viaje en tren de la hija, el confinamiento en el desierto que relata el hijo, el retorno de la familia a su hogar y la amarga puesta en libertad del padre despues de su cautiverio. Cuando el emperador era Dios nos recuerda el destino de quienes, durante años, se convirtieron en invisibles.

Julie Otsuka''s "The Buddha in the Attic", the follow-up to "When the Emperor Was Divine" was shortlisted for the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and winner of the Pen Faulkner Award for Fiction 2012. Between the first and second world wars a group of young, non-English-speaking Japanese women travelled by boat to America. They were picture brides, clutching photos of husbands-to-be whom they had yet to meet. Julie Otsuka tells their extraordinary, heartbreaking story in this spellbinding and poetic account of strangers lost and alone in a new and deeply foreign land. "Sweeping, symphonic, empathic ...subtle, infinitely skilful ...an exhilarating, compulsive read. Otsuka''s haunting, heartbreaking conclusion, in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, is faultless". ("Daily Mail"). "A tender, nuanced, empathetic exploration of the sorrows and consolations of a whole generation of women ...the distaff equivalent of a war memorial". ("Daily Telegraph"). "A haunting and heartbreaking look at the immigrant experience...Otsuka''s keenly observed prose manages to capture whole histories in a sweep of gorgeous incantatory sentences". ("Marie Claire"). "An understated masterpiece ...she conjures up the lost voices of a generation of Japanese American women without losing sight of the distinct experience of each". ("San Francisco Chronicle"). 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. Her second novel, "The Buddha in the Attic", was nominated for the 2011 National Book Award. She lives in New York City. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Exquisite The New York Times A tale of grief and memory awash with dark humour and wit Spectator Up there she says I m just another little old lady But down here at the pool I m myself For the people who swim there each day the local pool is a haven of unexpected kinship and private solace For Alice her daily laps have become the ritual that gives her life meaning even though she may not remember the combination to her locker or where she put her towel But one day a crack appears deep beneath the surface of the water and then another and then another The pool must close for repairs and with that Alice is plunged into dislocation and chaos Away from the steady routines of her swimming she is engulfed by difficult memories of her own past And as her sense of home and of herself slip further out of her grasp her daughter must navigate the newly fractured landscape of their relationship From the internationally bestselling author of The Buddha in the Attic comes a novel about memory and loss mothers and daughters the stories that make up a life and what happens when they start to unravel

This title is winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction 2012 and Finalist for the 2011 National Book Award, and the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. In eight incantatory sections, "The Buddha in the Attic" traces the women's extraordinary lives, from their arduous journey by boat, where they exchange photographs of their husbands, imagining uncertain futures in an unknown land; to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives; to their backbreaking work picking fruit in the fields and scrubbing the floors of white women in their homes; to their struggles to master a new language and a new culture; to their experiences in childbirth, and then as mothers, raising children who will ultimately reject their heritage and their history; and, to the deracinating arrival of war. In language that has the force and the fury of poetry, Julie Otsuka has written a singularly spellbinding novel about the American dream

«Algunas éramos de Kioto. Algunas éramos de Nara.Algunas éramos de una pequeña aldea montañosa. Algunaséramos de Tokio. Algunas éramos de Hiroshima. La másjoven de nosotras tenía doce años. La mayor

«Algunas éramos de Kioto. Algunas éramos de Nara.Algunas éramos de una pequeña aldea montañosa. Algunaséramos de Tokio. Algunas éramos de Hiroshima. La másjoven de nosotras tenía doce años. La mayor

These beautiful, passionate accounts make up an immensely powerful short novel about the Japanese American experience in World War II.

Nageurs et nageuses de cette piscine que tous appellent "la en bas" ne se connaissent qua travers leurs routines et petites manies, et les longueurs, encore, encore. Ils y viennent a heure fixe pour se liberer des fardeaux de "la-haut". Alice, tout specialement, trouve un grand reconfort dans sa ligne de nage. Et puis un jour, une fissure apparait au fond, dans le grand bain, en prefigurant dautres, celles de son cerveau. Pour elle, lineluctable fermeture resonne comme un clap de fin. Remontent alors a la surface des souvenirs de jadis, de linternement dans un camp pour Nippo-Americains pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, dune enfant perdue tres tot, pourtant si parfaite Mais Alice oublie chaque jour un peu plus. La ou il faudra bien se resoudre a lenfermer, sa fille essaie de sauver quelques lambeaux du paysage fracture quest devenue leur relation lacunaire. Micky Sebastian sempare avec une grande finesse de ce roman intime et universel, et nous livre une lecture vibrante et bouleversante.

"Parce que pour nous, nager est plus qu’un passe-temps, c’est une passion, un réconfort, une drogue choisie, ce que nous attendons plus que toute autre chose. C’est le seul moment où je me sens vraim

La galardonada autora bestseller nos brinda una historia única, que nos recuerda la capacidad del alma para conmoverse.«Un extraordinario examen de la fragilidad de las relaciones humanas cotidianas.

An understated masterpieceSan Francisco ChronicleHer wisdom is staggeringly beautiful, implicating each of usIrish TimesAfter the First World War, a group of young women is brought by boat from Japan to San Francisco. They are picture brides, promised the American Dream, clutching photographs of the husbands they have yet to meet, imagining uncertain futures on unknown shores.Struggling to master a new language and culture, they experience tremulous first nights as new wives, backbreaking work in the fields and in the homes of white women, and, later, the raising of children who will ultimately reject their heritage and their history.And then war arrives once more.Julie Otsuka tells their extraordinary, heartbreaking story in this spellbinding and poetic account of strangers lost and alone in a new and deeply foreign land.A tender, nuanced, empathetic exploration of the sorrows and consolations of a whole generation of womenDaily TelegraphWINNER OF THE PEN FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION 2012SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2011SHORTLISTED FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE 2011

Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in FictionExquisiteThe New York TimesA tale of grief and memory awash with dark humour and witSpectator____________________________________________________"Up there," she says, "Im just another little old lady. But down here, at the pool, Im myself."For the people who swim there each day, the local pool is a haven of unexpected kinship and private solace. For Alice, her daily laps have become the ritual that gives her life meaning, even though she may not remember the combination to her locker or where she put her towel.But one day, a crack appears deep beneath the surface of the water, and then another, and then another. The pool must close for repairs, and with that Alice is plunged into dislocation and chaos.Away from the steady routines of her swimming, she is engulfed by difficult memories of her own past. And as her sense of home, and of herself, slip further out of her grasp, her daughter must navigate the newly fractured landscape of their relationship.From the internationally bestselling author of The Buddha in the Attic comes a novel about memory and loss, mothers and daughters, the stories that make up a life, and what happens when they start to unravel.______________________________________________Im in awe of how this beautiful, graceful novel can hold so much grief and loss and love in its pages: a literary gem. Nicci GerrardAn unforgettable novel about mothers and daughters by a spellbinding talent Daily Mail

A compelling, powerful portrait of a terrible endurance. TerrificThe TimesFour months after Pearl Harbor, signs begin appearing up and down the West Coast instructing all persons of Japanese ancestry to report to assembly centers. For one family - reclassified, virtually overnight, as unwelcome enemies - it is the beginning of a nightmare of oppression and alienation that will alter their lives forever.There is the mother, reeling from the order to evacuate, and the daughter, travelling on the long train journey away from freedom. There is the son, who struggles to adapt to their new life in the dust of the Utah desert, and the father, who, after four bitter years in captivity, returns to his family a stranger.Based on a true story, Julie Otsukas powerful, deeply humane first novel tells of a forgotten generation who found themselves imprisoned in their own country, and evokes an unjustly overlooked episode in Americas wartime history.Outstandingly accomplished and movingSunday TelegraphExceptionalNew YorkerLONGLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZEWINNER OF THE ASIAN AMERICAN LITERARY AWARD 2003WINNER OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ALEX AWARD 2003

La galardonada autora bestseller nos brinda una historia única, que nos recuerda la capacidad del alma para conmoverse."Un extraordinario examen de la fragilidad de las relaciones humanas cotidianas." BooklistUna madre, una hija, y la aparicion de una grieta en sus vidas.Los nadadores van y vienen en el agua. No saben que su rutina personal, privada y silenciosa, es una pieza fundamental de un engranaje invisible y siempre en equilibrio. De pronto, una grieta aparece en el fondo de la piscina. Expulsados del agua, arrojados a un mundo seco, deberan afrontar la realidad. Y tambien tendra que hacerlo Alice, cuyos recuerdos se empañan cada vez mas. El agua era la ultima defensa. Ahora su hija ha vuelto, para ser testigo de las propias grietas en su relacion y para compartir ese vinculo entre madre e hija que nunca entendieron ni supieron que existia. La autora de Buda en el atico y Cuando el emperador era Dios nos regala esta historia intima y apasionante que supone un homenaje a las experiencias de una vida, a todo aquello que se recuerda y a lo que se acaba perdiendo.Han dicho:"Otsuka trata con finura una historia de resistencia que resulta ejemplar." Babelia, de El Pais

Berkeley, décembre 1941. Au lendemain de l’attaque de Pearl Harbor, un homme sans histoires est brutalement embarqué pour un interrogatoire qui aboutira à son internement forcé. Son épouse et ses enf

"Nous voilà en Amérique, nous dirions-nous, il n’y a pas à s’inquiéter. Et nous aurions tort." Au début du XXe siècle, des Japonaises font route vers les États-Unis pour y épouser des hommes qu’elles