Sergeant Ray Kawasaki, who volunteered for World War Two from the Tule Lake internment camp, comes home to Placer County, California in 1945 to find he is no longer welcome. Nearly 40 years later John Frazier, a Vietnam vet, sets out to discover the end to Ray’s story, which overlaps his own family history. John is recruited as a driver by his aunt Evelyn Wilson, who wants to visit Ray’s mother Kimiko Takahashi in Oakland. The two women, once neighbours, hadn’t seen each other since Kimiko and her family were bussed away in 1942. Over several visits, John witnesses a sharing of secrets that breaks both families apart. Told in vivid lyrical prose, Kiefer’s novel reveals the sorrows and lingering guilt of wartime, and the dangers of forgetting. (Credit: Liveright)