Ash - Softcover

Thompson, Holly

3.8

64 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1880656655 ISBN 13: 9781880656655

Publisher: Stone Bridge Press, 2001

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Caitlin Ober is back in Japan, teaching English in Kyushu. Some 15 years ago, as a little girl, Caitlin lived in Kyoto, but a tragic accident drove her and her family back to America. Now guilt obscures her path, just as ashfall from a nearby volcano covers Kagoshima in dust. In a garden Caitlin meets a teenage half-Japanese girl, Naomi, who may be someone Caitlin can save this time around. Together the two travel to Kyoto during O-Bon, the festival when the dead return. Amid bonfires, temple grounds, and ghostly memories, Caitlin bravely embraces her future. Ash is a bittersweet novel of redemptive beauty, of startling images and alluring details.

Holly Thompson lives in Kamakura and writes frequently about Japan. This is her first novel.

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From the Publisher:

A wonderful guide for book groups, bookstores, and libraries!

From the Author:

"Ash is about grief and loss, about how grief can cripple years after a loss, and how elusive recovery from loss can be. Ash is also about the duality that inevitably plays a central part of any bicultural person’s life.

I hope that readers will gain a deeper sense of the challenges facing not only foreigners but also any atypical Japanese in Japan. I also hope that readers gain a sense of wonder for the volcanic landscape that Japan is and that their curiosity is piqued for the Japan that is not sleek and urban, nor the exclusive world of geisha and samurai." Holly Thompson, author of ASH

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