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December's delights are here! Thrilling tales, romance, and magic await you.

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Love in Translation

Love in Translation, December 2009
by Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

St. Martin's Griffin
Featuring: Celeste; Takuya
272 pages
ISBN: 0312372663
EAN: 9780312372668
Paperback
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"Witty, lighthearted and charming story of finding love and family in an unexpected place."

Fresh Fiction Review

Love in Translation
Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

Reviewed by Viki Ferrell
Posted November 13, 2009

Contemporary Women's Fiction

Celeste Duncan's trip to Japan has a dual purpose: to fulfill a family obligation of returning some objects and to possibly learn her father's identity. Alone in San Jose with no known, living family, Celeste receives a phone call from a convalescent center that her "Aunt Mitch" has passed away and left her listed as her only relative. A box would be arriving shortly with Michiko Taniguichi's personal effects. Michiko had married Celeste's mother's uncle during the war. Celeste has not seen her in years. After going through the box, Celeste decides to make the journey to Japan to search for Aunt Mitch's sister Hiromi, return the items and to hopefully learn who her father really is. Before her mother's untimely death when Celeste was only 10, she was only told that her father could be any number of men. Not a very comforting thought, now that Celeste is old enough to actually know what that means. Celeste's time in Japan leads her to a friendship with a teacher helping her learn Japanese and also to a family who lets her stay with them when she loses her job, has little money and no place to go. With the help of these new friends, she travels across Japan in search of her destiny. And what will that destiny be? Will she find this long-lost relative? Will this person lead her to the knowledge of her father? And through a set of unusual circumstances, will Celeste finally be able to realize her real ambition in life -- to be a singer like her mother? LOVE IN TRANSLATION is witty and charming. Learning the Japanese language proves to be quite a challenge. Celeste finds that it is real easy to get words mixed up and say the wrong thing. However, in her search for her family, she learns that love needs no translation. A great read you're sure to enjoy.

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SUMMARY

Stuck.  That’s how 33-year-old aspiring singer Celeste Duncan feels, with her deadbeat boyfriend and static career. But then Celeste receives a puzzling phone call and a box full of mysterious family heirlooms which just might be the first real clue to the identity of the father she never knew. Impulsively, Celeste flies to Japan to search for a long-lost relative who could be able to explain. She stumbles head first into a weird, wonderful world where nothing is quite as it seems—a land with an inexplicable fascination with foreigners, karaoke boxes, and unbearably perky TV stars. With little knowledge of Japanese, Celeste finds a friend in her English-speaking homestay brother, Takuya, and comes to depend on him for all variety of translation, travel and investigatory needs. As they cross the country following a trail after Celeste's family, she discovers she's developing "more-than-sisterly" feelings for him. But with a nosy homestay mom scheming to reunite Takuya with his old girlfriend, and her search growing dimmer, Celeste begins to wonder whether she's made a terrible mistake by coming to Japan. Can Celeste find her true self in this strange land, and discover that love can transcend culture?

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