cover image ONE HUNDRED MILLION HEARTS

ONE HUNDRED MILLION HEARTS

Kerri Sakamoto, . . Harcourt, $23 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-15-101037-0

The lingering shadow of WWII hangs over this second novel, in which Sakamoto (The Electrical Field ) again explores the secrets and burdens of second-generation Japanese-Canadians. Miyo, the young protagonist, is born physically deformed and cared for with tenderness by her widowed father, Masao, despite the occasional interference of his would-be girlfriend, Setsuko. Shortly after Miyo moves out of her father's house as an adult to live with her boyfriend, David, her father dies, and she is faced with the shocking fact that Setsuko was his wife and has a child, Miyo's half-sister Hana, in Japan. Traveling with Setsuko to Tokyo, Miyo confronts the fierce love and anger of Hana and learns that her father was a pilot in a kamikaze unit during the war. Hana is a gifted, troubled artist, resentful, of the absent father Miyo has always respected and obsessed with his wartime activities. The novel gains depth and force when Miyo and Hana's stories begin to connect with that of "Buddy" Kuroda, a convicted war criminal, and his wife, Kiku, whose long-ago kamikaze fiancé, Hajime, once revealed in passionate final letters his doubts about his great sacrifice and the part he played in determining Masao's fate. The reader is left with some unanswered questions; Miyo's observations are often childishly simplistic, and the tempestuous Hana can't sit still long enough to fully express herself or her feelings. But the novel is redeemed by its deft evocation of Japanese culture and its grave examination of a tragic episode in Japanese history. Agent, Denise Bukowski. (Jan.)