From New York Times and internationally bestselling author Isabel Allende an exquisitely crafted love story and multigenerational epic that sweeps from San Francisco in the present-day to Poland and the United States during the Second World WarIn as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis young Alma Belascos parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco There as the rest of the world goes to war she encounters Ichimei Fukuda the quiet and gentle son of the familys Japanese gardener Unnoticed by those around them a tender love affair begins to blossom Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his familylike thousands of other Japanese Americansare declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government Throughout their lifetimes Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world Decades later Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life Irina Bazili a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past meets the elderly woman and her grandson Seth at San Franciscos charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home As Irina and Seth forge a friendship they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years Sweeping through time and spanning generations and continents The Japanese Lover explores questions of identity abandonment redemption and the unknowable impact of fate on our lives Written with the same attention to historical detail and keen understanding of her characters that Isabel Allende has been known for since her landmark first novel The House of the Spirits The Japanese Lover is a profoundly moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change.
