The Diplomat's Daughter

A Novel

By: Karin Tanabe

Narrated by: Joy Osmanski, Corey Brill, Jacques Roy

Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

For fans of All the Light We Cannot See and Orphan Train, the author of the "thought-provoking" (Library Journal) and "must-read" (PopSugar) novel The Gilded Years crafts a captivating tale of three young people divided by the horrors of World War II and their journey back to one another.

During the turbulent months following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, 21-year-old Emi Kato, the daughter of a Japanese diplomat, is locked behind barbed wire in a Texas internment camp. She feels hopeless until she meets handsome young Christian Lange, whose German-born parents were wrongfully arrested for un-American activities. Together they live as prisoners with thousands of other German and Japanese families but discover that love can bloom in even the bleakest circumstances.

When Emi and her mother are abruptly sent back to Japan, Christian enlists in the United States Army, with his sights set on the Pacific front - and, he hopes, a reunion with Emi, unaware that her first love, Leo Hartmann, the son of wealthy of Austrian parents and now a Jewish refugee in Shanghai, may still have her heart.

Fearful of bombings in Tokyo, Emi's parents send her to a remote resort town in the mountains, where many in the foreign community have fled. Cut off from her family, struggling with growing depression and hunger, Emi repeatedly risks her life to help keep her community safe - all while wondering if the two men she loves are still alive.

As Christian Lange struggles to adapt to life as a soldier, his unit pushes its way from the South Pacific to Okinawa, where one of the bloodiest battles of World War II awaits them. Meanwhile, in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, as Leo fights to survive the squalor of the Jewish ghetto, a surprise confrontation with a Nazi officer threatens his life. For both men, Emi Kato is never far from their minds.

Flung together by war, passion, and extraordinary acts of selflessness, the paths of these three remarkable young people will collide as the fighting on the Pacific front crescendos. With her "elegant and extremely gratifying" (USA Today) storytelling, Karin Tanabe paints a stunning portrait of a turning point in history.

©2017 Karin Tanabe (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio

An interesting perspective of WWII.

The effect of WWII on characters who are not often portrayed. I found it very interesting.

The Diplomat's Daughter

A very good listen. A good look into a portion of history that I was not aware of. The suffering off the Japanese, the humiliation of the jews. There bond in war times and the cruelty and selfishness if the Germans. A story of survival .

Loved this book!

I really got involved with the characters and didn’t want it to end. Set in WW11, but from three perspectives. Well done!

Wonderful WW2 Story!

Great character development, interesting story taking place in Europe, the US and Asia. The novel has some historical details of the war including what life may have been like in an internment camp in the US. Of course, there is some romance but the theme of the novel is mostly about persistence, the horrors of war and survival. Highly recommend!

Acceptable

Not the best, not the worst. The woman narrator's voice irritated me at times, probably because of the various accents she used so unsuccessfully. If you aren't an expert at international accents, just use your own voice. We can imagine the appropriate accents. I loved the men's narration. I found Emmi, the main character, less than sympathetic. She needed better character development, imo. She was beautiful and supposedly had spunk, thus two men fell in love with her. I found her tiresome and spoiled. However, there was enough good in the book that I finished it. Perhaps if one of the men narrator's had read the whole novel, I would have enjoyed it more.

Slow start

It took about 3 hours to get into this book. I am glad I kept listening, it turned out to be a wonderfully story-- just had a slow start in my opinion.

Good story

I love Stories from this era! This book is an easy read and I could not put it down. Very enjoyable.

Scratches the surface of love and war, but...

This book seems to scratch the surface of love and war, but never really elicited any real emotion. I personally didn’t feel any real depth in this book. There wasn’t anything that really made me think deeper about such an important time in history. It’s definitely more of a love story than a historical one. I really wanted more insight on Japan and the internment camps, but everything felt really rushed and glossed over. Also, the narrator that did Leo’s character was literally emotionless. In scenes that required screaming or panic or anger, they instead were almost done at a whisper. The narrator’s energy never changed regardless of what was happening! This may have played into my lack of connection to the book. I don’t know. All together though I felt the story was just lacking.

Excellent

A deep understanding of what the Japanese, and Americans went thru during world war II on a personal level. Very well written, keeps you coming back for more. I will read more from this author.

Giving it 3.5 stars

This story takes us through the perspectives of three characters during WWII. The first one is a Japanese born woman who has lived and traveled around the world due to her father being a diplomat. Her name is Emi Kato. She is in love with Leo and is so sad to be leaving him, as he is from Austria, a place she had lived in for a time. In the early part of the book we don't really know much about him other than her obsession. As the story goes on we learn much more about his life (more in the second half). The second character we learn a lot about is Christian, who is an American born to German parents. He struggles with life in an internment camp.

This story is filled with passion and love as well as the hatred of people who are of different races. It is also about how a heart can change and how other hearts can have persistence and patience. It is a sad story many times and is not meant for those who are minors. It was well written. The narration on the audio book is well done. I am glad they changed voices based on the narration.