num_pages: 160
description: Julie Otsuka's commanding and passionate debut novel explores unfamiliar history - that of Japanese Americans in World War II. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination of a generation who find themselves interned in their own country. With each chapter flawlessly executed from a different point of view - the mother; the daughter; the son; the family's return to their home; and the bitter release of their father - she has created a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. "When The Emperor Was Divine" is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times. It heralds the arrival of a singularly gifted new novelist.
language: English
title: When the Emperor Was Divine
titlecomplete: When the Emperor Was Divine
genres: Asia, Historical, Historical Fiction, School, Adult Fiction, Japan, War, Adult, Fiction, World War II
ratings_count: 25475
places: Utah, California
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Longlist, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: ALA Alex Award, awardedAt: 1641024000000
name: Phoenix Award (Children's Literature Association)
publisher: Penguin