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A daughter's search for her mother reveals her family's past in a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War. Lily Takemitsu goes missing from her home in Toronto one luminous summer morning in the mid-1980s. Her daughter, Rita, knows her mother has a history of dissociation and memory problems, which have led her to wander off before. But never has she stayed away so long. Unconvinced the police are taking the case seriously, Rita begins to carry out her own investigation. In the course of searching for her mom, she is forced to confront a labyrinth of secrets surrounding the family's internment at a camp in the California desert during the Second World War, their postwar immigration to Toronto, and the father she has never known. Epic in scope, intimate in style, After the Bloom blurs between the present and the ever-present past, beautifully depicting one family's struggle to face the darker side of its history and find some form of redemption.
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Reviews
"A masterful and deeply moving tale of mothers and daughters, of hidden histories and repressed memories, of loss and of love, After the Bloom is a potent reminder of the legacy of the internment and the power of reclaiming the past."
Lynne Kutsukake, author of The Translation of Love
"Leslie Shimotakahara uses bold strokes of unflinching and honest prose to paint a landscape of beauty and brutality in her compelling debut novel After the Bloom as she tells one woman's journey and a daughter's desire for truth. Like evocative cherry blossoms, Shimotakahara's powerful words float from page to page, enticing the reader to take courageous steps through the tragedy and oppression o
Sonia Saikaley, author of A Samurai's Pink House
"Shimotakahara's writing is personal and entrancing, unflinchingly shining a light on this difficult part of history."
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