Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel

· Sold by Ballantine Books
4.6
69 reviews
Ebook
304
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut that explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle era during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love.”—Lisa See

“A tender and satisfying novel.”—Garth Stein, bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

In 1986, Henry Lee joins a crowd outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has discovered the belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. As the owner displays and unfurls a Japanese parasol, Henry, a Chinese American, remembers a young Japanese American girl from his childhood in the 1940s—Keiko Okabe, with whom he forged a bond of friendship and innocent love that transcended the prejudices of their Old World ancestors. After Keiko and her family were evacuated to the internment camps, she and Henry could only hope that their promise to each other would be kept. Now, forty years later, Henry explores the hotel’s basement for the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot even begin to measure. His search will take him on a journey to revisit the sacrifices he has made for family, for love, for country.

Ratings and reviews

4.6
69 reviews
Nathan Prestwich
May 6, 2020
This is a great book filled with many emotions. The Japanese internment camps are on often overlooked part of U.S. history, and it's important to remember the impact it had on people's lives. The narrative itself is a sweet story filled with complex relationships, good and bad. I don't read much fiction, but I founnd myself always reading more than I planned each session.
3 people found this review helpful
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Desirae H
May 14, 2018
Such a great read 📚💜 it's a different side of WWII you don't hear a whole lot about. I enjoyed the storyline and the characters. Such a great historical love story that made me all teary eyed at the end. Mr. Ford deserves great praise for this wonderful read that I am so greatful to have picked up from the bookstore.
4 people found this review helpful
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Paul Lam (homeboy)
October 22, 2013
Great read about the innocence of youth in time of war between three countries and culture. 1st generation American of Chinese descent meets a 2nd generation American of Japanese descent. Will their relationship last through cultural bigotry and internment?
2 people found this review helpful
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About the author

Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated from Kaiping, China, to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the Western name “Ford,” thus confusing countless generations. Ford is an award-winning short-story writer, an alumnus of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and a survivor of Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp. Having grown up near Seattle’s Chinatown, he now lives in Montana with his wife and children.

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