The Buddha in the attic

“We forgot about Buddha. We forgot about God. We developed a coldness inside us that still has not thawed. I fear my soul has died. We stopped writing home to our mothers. We lost weight and grew thin. We stopped bleeding. We stopped dreaming. We stopped wanting.”

This book blew my mind. I won’t tell you why exactly, because you really have to read it to get the full impact. Suffice it to say that the style of Otsuka’s storytelling along with the subject-matter captured my heart. I was fully invested in this book with its story of Japanese brides who have come to America to live and work with their husbands, and the challenges they faced through the internment camps set up by the U.S. government during WWII. The book goes down easy, but it’ll stick with you for a while after you’re done.