Set during World War II, Julie Otsuka’s debut novel, ‘When The Emperor Was Divine’, follows a Japanese-American family from their home in California to an internment camp in the Utah desert. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, a mother, father, daughter, and son are forced to abandon their lives and confront the profound impact of imprisonment, alienation, and prejudice in their own country.

Why You Should Read?

• Explore a critical, often overlooked, period of American history through a deeply personal narrative.
• Experience the internment experience through the intimate, shifting perspectives of a family.
• Gain insight into themes of identity, loyalty, and the profound resilience of the human spirit.
• Appreciate Julie Otsuka’s spare, poetic prose and her empathetic portrayal of historical injustice.