The Japanese Lover

A Novel

Isabel Allende

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781501116995
• eBook ISBN:
  9781501117008
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

From New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende, "a magical and sweeping" ( Publishers Weekly, starred review) love story and multigenerational epic that stretches from San Francisco in the present-day to Poland and the United States during World War II. In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco's 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 family's 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 family—like thousands of other Japanese Americans—are 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 Francisco's 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 is written with the same 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 moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Chapter 1: Lark House
• Chapter 2: Frenchie
• Chapter 3: Alma Belasco
• Chapter 4: The Invisible Man
• Chapter 5: The Polish Girl
• Chapter 6: Alma, Nathaniel, and Ichimei
• Chapter 7: Irina Bazili
• Chapter 8: Seth Belasco
• Chapter 9: The Fukuda Family
• Chapter 10: The Yellow Peril
• Chapter 11: Irina, Alma, and Lenny
• Chapter 12: The Prisoners
• Chapter 13: Arizona
• Chapter 14: Boston
• Chapter 15: The Resurrection
• Chapter 16: The Sword of the Fukudas
• Chapter 17: Love
• Chapter 18: Traces of the Past
• Chapter 19: Light and Shadow
• Chapter 20: Agent Wilkins
• Chapter 21: Secrets
• Chapter 22: The Confession
• Chapter 23: Tijuana
• Chapter 24: Best Friends
• Chapter 25: Autumn
• Chapter 26: Gardenias
• Chapter 27: The Child Never Born
• Chapter 28: The Patriarch
• Chapter 29: Samuel Mendel
• Chapter 30: Nathaniel
• Chapter 31: The Japanese Lover
• ‘In the Midst of Winter’ Teaser
• About Isabel Allende
• Copyright