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    The Japanese Lover
    The Japanese Lover
    The Japanese Lover
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Japanese Lover

    Written by Isabel Allende

    Narrated by Joanna Gleason

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateNov 3, 2015
    ISBN9781442391246
    The Japanese Lover
    Author

    Isabel Allende

    Isabel Allende is the author of twelve works of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Maya’s Notebook, Island Beneath the Sea, Inés of My Soul, Daughter of Fortune, and a novel that has become a world-renowned classic, The House of the Spirits. Born in Peru and raised in Chile, she lives in California.

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    Reviews for The Japanese Lover

    4.5/5

    254 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The development of the different story lines and characters increasingly engaged me and pulled me in. The book touches on so many areas of life: family, love, aging, holocaust, abandonment, sexual abuse by a family member, secret love affairs, loyal friendships, complex relationships. It seems like what we see first is not even close to the real characters, but the author builds them as the novel progresses skillfully and beautifully. I very much enjoyed reading this novel, the first I read from Allende in years.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Isabella Allende is masterful. I loved this book & its characters.
    • 5/5
      Isabel Allende writes the most amazing female characters! All her books have a subtle beauty to them.
    • 5/5
      What an awesome book and tender lovestory spanning over several decades.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful and informative. I really enjoyed this story and will recommend it to others.
    • 5/5
      Love it. So much romance in this story. 100% recommended ❤️❤️
    • 3/5
      Too predictable .... too many heroes and villains....however the facts on the treatment of the Japanese during WW11 were horrifying. .... A disgrace........Concentration camp treatment with more food.
      It was a book club choice so I finished it and I'm not sorry I did. So so .....
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book. I love Isabel Allende books. She always writes interesting stories.