The release date for the English version of 'The Buddha in the Attic' by
Julie Otsuka is Aug 2011. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
The much anticipated sequel by Julie Otsuka to When the Emperor Was Divine is a masterwork of economy and dexterity that chronicles the tale of a group of young ladies who were transported from Japan to San Francisco over a century ago as "picture brides."
The Buddha in the Attic explores the extraordinary lives of the picture brides in eight spellbinding sections, starting with their torturous boat journey, during which they exchange photographs of their husbands and imagine uncertain futures in a foreign land; their arrival in San Francisco and their tumultuous first nights as new wives; their backbreaking work picking fruit in the fields and cleaning the floors of white women; their struggles to learn a new language and a new culture; their experiences giving birth, and then raising children who will eventually reject their heritage and their history; and finally, the arrival of war, which will fascinate them.