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Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Jamie Ford
Ballantine
February 2009
On Sale: January 27, 2009
304 pages
ISBN: 0345505336
EAN: 9780345505330
Hardcover
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Fiction
"Sentimental, heartfelt….the exploration of Henry’s
changing relationship with his family and with Keiko will
keep most readers turning pages...A timely debut that not
only reminds readers of a shameful episode in American
history, but cautions us to examine the present and take
heed we don’t repeat those injustices."-- Kirkus Reviews “A tender and satisfying novel set in a time and a place
lost forever, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet gives
us a glimpse of the damage that is caused by war--not the
sweeping damage of the battlefield, but the cold, cruel
damage to the hearts and humanity of individual people.
Especially relevant in today's world, this is a beautifully
written book that will make you think. And, more
importantly, it will make you feel."
-- Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The
Art of Racing in the Rain “Jamie Ford's first novel explores the age-old conflicts
between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what
happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle area during
World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart
love. An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut.”
-- Lisa See, bestselling author of Snow Flower and the
Secret Fan
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel,
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes
upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the
gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for
decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible
discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when
they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during
World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese
parasol. This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at
the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble
of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is
obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up
American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier
Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets
Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the
chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko
forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that
transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World
ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in
the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are
left only with the hope that the war will end, and that
their promise to each other will be kept. Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol
belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he
begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings
and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to
measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his
voice–words that might explain the actions of his
nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap
between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words
that might help him confront the choices he made many years
ago. Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in
American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope.
In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable
duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and
the human heart.
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