A dazzling debut novel by the prize-winning author of Yellow, set in the unique and exotic nightworld of Tokyo.
In this "poignant story of prejudice, betrayal and the search for identity" ( Newsweek International), the trials and tribulations of these three remarkable characters are "at turns trenchantly funny and heartbreakingly sad" ( Publishers Weekly). "[An] elegant and haunting debut" ( Entertainment Weekly), Country of Origin is a "swirl of action, a whirl of love and sex and race and politics, local and international" ( Chicago Tribune)—a "quiet literary triumph" ( Booklist)Lisa Countryman is a woman of complex origins. Half-Japanese, adopted by African American parents, she returns to Tokyo, ostensibly to research her thesis on Japan's "sad, brutal reign of conformity." When she vanishes, Tom Hurley, who is half-Korean and half-white, is assigned to her case at the American embassy, as is local cop Kenzo Ota, who is 100 percent Japanese but deemed an outsider.