August 2021

CLARK AND DIVISION by Naomi Hirahara was one of the books that readers who attended July's "Bookaccino Live" event were most looking forward to reading --- and their anticipation is well founded.

It is set in Chicago in the early '40s as a Japanese family is resettled there after spending time in an internment camp in California. The title refers to the two streets at the crossroads in the city where this family lives. The book is told through the eyes of Aki Ito, and readers get a strong sense of place as well as story. Aki and her parents arrive in Chicago to learn that her sister, Rose, died in a subway accident. Was it truly an accident, was she pushed, or was it a suicide? The latter seems unfathomable to Aki. She takes it upon herself to defend her sister’s honor and learn what happened, all while juggling her parents' readjustment issues with life in Chicago, as well as her own.

I never knew that those who were in internment camps were moved around the country. Aki’s family had a modest but successful way of life before Pearl Harbor upended all that they knew. Now they are in the Midwest without any of their personal belongings or the lives that they have held dear and loved.

This book will have you wanting to research this migration more, as well as contemplate again the toll that these moves had on these families. It could be great for a book club discussion.