A Seattle Times Best Book of the Year Okinawa, present day: Luz, a teenage military brat, has moved to the island’s U.S. Air Force base with her mother, a no-nonsense sergeant. Luz’s mother hopes that the move will reconnect them with the Okinawan branch of their family—and help them heal from the death of Luz’s beloved older sister. This is an island where departed spirits mingle with the living, and interwoven with Luz’s narrative is the story of an Okinawan girl, Tamiko Kokuba, who in 1945 was plucked from her high school and trained to work in the Imperial Army’s horrific cave hospitals. Both of these extraordinary young women are seeking peace, and as Luz digs deeper and deeper into her past, their quests will intersect. Above the East China Sea tells the entwined stories of two lives connected across time by the shared experience of loss, the strength of an ancient culture, and the power of family love.
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Full disclosure, I received a copy through the Goodreads giveaway.
This started out a little awkward for me and I wasn't sure I was going to get into this book. The first couple of chapters about Luz's life on the military base and her rambling, confused dialogue about the “quasis'” turned me off. I had to put it down for a little while, but then I came back to it and I'm glad I did. The story really started to pick up and I loved learning about the Okinawan history and the contrast to modern day. There were a few too many loose-ends that were too neatly tied up at the end for my taste, but still an intriguing story. Would definitely recommend this if you can get past the first 50 pages!
