It's hard to believe this was Otsuka's first novel. It's beautifully written and has a maturity about it that makes me think she is a veteran writer. She tells the story of a Japanese family that is relocated to an internment camp during WWII, but she does it in a way that speaks for all of the Japanese in America who suffered. The members of the family are never named, and we know just enough about them to understand their thoughts and feelings, but nothing more. They stand in for every family that was torn apart and herded like cattle to camps. The whole time I read, my heart just broke thinking about how our country had thought this was a good idea. The woman and her two young children were just like you and me - they had their own house, their own backyard, the parents worked hard, the kids played with their friends. Then all of a sudden this horrible prejudice was forced upon them. Their father was taken away as a suspected traitor. They could no longer be proud of their culture and background. They could no longer say they were Japanese. They were no longer treated as humans. 
 This book made me feel a lot of things, and I know it is one I'll periodically think back on. It's a short read, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand how any displaced person feels. Otsuka does a brilliant job of illuminating just how troubling these events were in simple but impactful ways.