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Sep 23, 2020JCLChrisK rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
A moving tale from a little-known historical refugee experience. In the 1930s Japan sent citizens to settle the newly acquired territories of its expanding empire, including Manchuria in northern China. When Japan lost the war in 1945, these settlers were exiled from their homes and had to try to flee back to Japan. This tells the story of twelve-year-old Natsu. Her single-parent father was conscripted into military service weeks before the surrender, so she is alone with her younger sister and an elderly neighbor woman as they begin a long trek across the desolate plains. They desperately face isolation, starvation, disease, and hostility everywhere they go. Nagai tells the story as a novel-in-verse, the succinct simplicity well suited to the starkness of the tale. Reading it is an engaging and affecting experience.