The Baseball Widow

De: Suzanne Kamata

Narrado por: Rachel Perry

When Christine, an idealistic young American teacher, meets and marries Hideki Yamada, an aspiring Japanese high school baseball coach, she believes that their love with be enough to sustain them as they deal with cultural differences. However, Hideki's duties, and the team of fit, obedient boys whom he begins to think of as a surrogate family, take up more and more of his time, just as Christine is struggling to manage the needs of their multiply-disabled daughter and their sensitive son. Things come to a head when their son is the victim of bullies. Christine begins to think that she and her children would be safer—and happier—in her native country. On a trip back to the States, she reconnects with a dangerously attractive friend from high school who seems to understand her like no one else.

Meanwhile, Daisuke Uchida, a slugger with pro potential who has returned to Japan after living abroad, may be able to help propel Hideki's team to the national baseball tournament at Koshien. Not only would this be a dream come true for Hideki, but also it would secure the futures of his players. While Daisuke looks to Hideki for guidance, he is also distracted by Nana, a talented but troubled girl, whom he is trying to rescue from a life as a bar hostess (or worse). Hideki must ultimately choose between his team and his family.

©2021 Suzanne Kamata (P)2022 Tantor

Captivating

As an American woman with a Japanese husband living in Thailand (where Christine volunteers at one point in this novel), I was enthralled by not only how true to life it is, but also by how deeply it probes the different cultures it brings together. I couldn’t stop listening for insights, and for what would happen next to all the characters.

A wonderful story

As a foreign woman with a family in Japan, I found this book to be completely relatable. The story is beautiful and heartbreaking and I think anyone raising a family in Japan or being a returnee to Japan, or raising children with any kinds of differences will find that they feel a little more understood and a little less isolated while reading/listening to this book.