Author | Isabel Allende |
---|---|
Translator | Nick Caistor, Amanda Hopkinson |
Language | English |
Subject | Historical Romance, Family Saga |
Genre | Historical Fiction, Contemporary Fiction |
Set in | Poland, United States |
Published | November 3, 2015 |
Publisher | Atria Books |
Publication place | United States |
Published in English | November 3, 2015 |
Media type | Print (Paperback and Hardcover) |
Pages | 336 Pages |
ISBN | 978-1501116971 |
Preceded by | Ripper |
Followed by | In the Midst of winter |
The Japanese Lover is the eighteenth book by Chilean author Isabel Allende. [1] It was published in 2015 and recounts a wartime love story between a Polish woman and a Japanese American in the aftermath of the Nazi Invasion of Poland in 1939. The book is set in World War II. [2] Just like Allende's other books, it tells a story which spans decades.
It follows the magical realism and historical romance/fiction like her previous books. The Japanese Lover also coincided with Allende receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President, Barack Obama.
In 2015, octogenarian Alma Belasco is moving in the Lark House, a retirement home for quirky individuals in San Francisco. [3] Lark House's caretaker, Irina Bazili, is a young Moldovan immigrant who seems to have some intense trauma of her own. [4] Because of her nature, Irina is hired by Alma as her personal secretary. Throughout the book, various momentous events of the second half of the 20th century are related alongside Alma's own experiences. [5]
A secret admirer of Alma sends her a series of letters, notes and gifts. [3] While searching for her admirer, Alma is accompanied by Irina and Alma's grandson, Seth, who is in love with Irina. [6] As Irina becomes closer to Seth and Alma, she discovers a photo of a man in Alma's room. Alma reveals the man was Ichimei Fukuda, a Japanese-American whom Alma met in 1939, and tells Irina the story of how she met Ichimei. [6]
In 1939, Germany was invading Poland, and eight-year-old Alma was sent San Francisco to her wealthy uncle and aunt to escape the Holocaust. [7] Alma met and befriended Ichimei, and they later fell in love. Following the attacks on Pearl Harbor, they were separated when all Japanese-Americans being sent to Internment zones. [2] They maintained their secret romance for decades through the means of letter. Although Alma later married Nathaniel, a childhood friend of both hers and Ichimei, she still continued her romance with Ichimei. [6]
Irina, despite trying to avoid any romance, confides in Seth and tells him about her abusive relationship with her step-father. As the young pair grows closer, Alma grows frailer and frailer, finally passing away one day. The story closes with one more letter between the two fated lovers who were never meant to be. [8]
Just like her other books, The Japanese Lover can also be called a commercial success being a bestseller. [9] The book covers a lot of material from the 1930s until the 2010s but in the process loses itself to lengthy writing failing to leave a mark, and the big cast of characters, losing themselves to stereotypes. As written by Lucy Ferris of the New York Times, the thin plot and weakly motivated characters, fail to lift this novel very high. [4] The Los Angeles Times stated, "The Japanese Lover is a humorless and earthbound disappointment". [10]
Isabel Angelica Allende Llona is a Chilean-American writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the magical realism genre, is known for novels such as The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts, which have been commercially successful. Allende has been called "the world's most widely read Spanish-language author." In 2004, Allende was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2010, she received Chile's National Literature Prize. President Barack Obama awarded her the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Tanith Lee was a British science fiction and fantasy writer. She wrote more than 90 novels and 300 short stories, and was the winner of multiple World Fantasy Society Derleth Awards, the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror. She also wrote a children's picture book, and many poems. She wrote two episodes of the BBC science fiction series Blake's 7 .
The House of the Spirits is the debut novel of Isabel Allende. The novel was rejected by several Spanish-language publishers before being published in Barcelona in 1982. It became an instant best-seller, was critically acclaimed, and catapulted Allende to literary stardom. The novel was named Best Novel of the Year in Chile in 1982, and Allende received the country's Panorama Literario award. The House of the Spirits has been translated into over 20 languages.
Zorro is a 2005 novel by Chilean author Isabel Allende. Its subject is the American pulp hero Diego de la Vega, better known as El Zorro. He first appeared as a character in Johnston McCulley's novella The Curse of Capistrano (1919). His character and adventures have also been adapted for an American TV series, other books, and cartoon series.
Daughter of Fortune is a novel by Isabel Allende, and was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in February 2000. It was published first in Spanish by Plaza & Janés in 1998. Isabel Allende says "of her female protagonist in Daughter of Fortune, Eliza, that she might well represent who the author might have been in another life." "Allende spent seven years of research on this, her fifth novel, which she says is a story of a young woman's search for self-knowledge." "Allende also believes that the novel reflects her own struggle to define the role of feminism in her life." Allende also wrote a sequel to Daughter of Fortune entitled Portrait in Sepia which follows Eliza Sommers' granddaughter.
Michele Sharon Jaffe is an American writer. She has authored novels in several genres, including historical romance, suspense thrillers, and novels for young adults.
Jessica Rowley Pell Bird Blakemore is an American novelist. Under her maiden name, Jessica Bird, she writes contemporary romance novels, and as J.R. Ward, she writes paranormal romance. She is a three-time winner of the Romance Writers of America RITA Award, once as Bird for Best Short Contemporary Romance for From the First and twice as Ward for Best Paranormal Romance for Lover Revealed and Dearest Ivie, and her books have been on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Elizabeth Strout is an American novelist and author. She is widely known for her works in literary fiction and her descriptive characterization. She was born and raised in Portland, Maine, and her experiences in her youth served as inspiration for her novels–the fictional "Shirley Falls, Maine" is the setting of four of her nine novels.
Love Com, also known as Lovely Complex, is a Japanese romantic comedy manga series written and illustrated by Aya Nakahara. It was published by Shueisha in Bessatsu Margaret from 2001 to 2007, with its chapters collected in 17 tankōbon volumes. The series is about the romance between a tall girl and a short boy who are treated as a comedy duo by their classmates.
Eva Luna is a novel written by Chilean novelist Isabel Allende in 1987 and translated from Spanish to English by Margaret Sayers Peden.
Darconville's Cat is the second novel by Alexander Theroux, first published in 1981. The main story is a love affair between Alaric Darconville, an English professor at a Virginia women's college, and Isabel, one of his students, but includes long sections on other topics, including a general satire of the world of American academics.
Amy Roberta (Berta) Ruck was a prolific Welsh writer of over 90 romance novels from 1905 to 1972. She also wrote short stories, an autobiography and two books of memoirs. Her married name was Mrs Oliver Onions from 1909 until 1918, when her husband changed his name and she became Amy Oliver.
Paula Frías Allende was an educator and humanitarian who was the daughter of Chilean-American author Isabel Allende. Her grandfather was first cousin to Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 to 1973. After her death, her mother started a foundation to continue works in Paula's name.
Corianton: A Story of Unholy Love is a 1931 American drama film based on the story of Corianton, the son of the prophet Alma in the Book of Mormon. Corianton appears only briefly in three passages in the Book of Mormon. However, as scholars Randy Astle and Gideon Burton point out, his story is one of the only stories in the Book of Mormon "with any sex in it", which has made it a popular subject of Book of Mormon-themed fiction and drama for more than a century.
The Stories of Eva Luna is a collection of Spanish-language short stories by the Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende. It consists of stories told by the title character of Allende's earlier novel Eva Luna. The literary critic Bárbara Mujica wrote: "The Chilean author presents her stories through the age-old device used by Scheherazade: the narrator tells them to her lover to entertain him. Like the famous Arabic tales, these stories combine fantasy with biting social satire and psychological insight."
Tierra de reyes, is an American telenovela premiered on Telemundo on December 2, 2014, and concluded on July 27, 2015. The telenovela is created by the Venezuelan author Rossana Negrín, based on the Colombian-American drama written by Julio Jiménez, entitled Pasión de Gavilanes. Produced by Telemundo Studios, and distributed by Telemundo Internacional.
Inés of My Soul is a historical novel by the Chilean author, Isabel Allende. The novel consists of an elderly Inés Suárez writing a memoir of her own life. She narrates about her relationship with Pedro de Valdivia and the obstacles they had to overcome to conquer Chile and found the City of Santiago.
A Long Petal of the Sea is a 2019 novel by Chilean author Isabel Allende. Originally published in Spain by Plaza & Janés, it was first published in the United States by Vintage Espanol. The novel was issued in 2019 in Spanish as Largo pétalo de mar, and was translated into English by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson. Told through fictional characters in the context of real historical events, the story takes place partly during the Spanish Civil War and partly in Chile where the protagonists again witness the fight between freedom and repression. A Long Petal of the Sea became the most popular book in Spain between April 2019 and April 2020.
Violeta is a 2022 novel by Chilean-American author Isabel Allende. It is a fictional autobiographical account of the life of Violeta Del Valle and how she witnessed the various upheavals of the 20th century. Violeta in the book recalls all she has seen and experienced in an unnamed South American country spanning 100 years.
In the Midst of Winter is a 2017 novel by Chilean author Isabel Allende. It is the twenty-third book by Allende, who has made a name for herself as one of the eminent writers of magical realism. She is widely considered a preeminent Latin-American female author and her books, advocating feminist rights and the end of patriarchy in Latin America show her own struggles. In the Midst of Winter, follows the same pattern as her previous books, based on political injustice, the art of survival and most of all the need for love. The story is set in Brooklyn, New York City during a snowstorm, where a lonely university professor hits the car of an undocumented young Guatemalan. At first only an accident, things spiral out of control when the woman shows up at the professor's home to seek help. The professor, takes the help of his tenant, a fellow academic from Chile, as the unlikely trio embark on a journey of uncovering truth and discovering love.