The Japanese Lover

By: Isabel Allende

Narrated by: Joanna Gleason

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

From New York Times and internationally best-selling author Isabel Allende, an exquisitely crafted love story and multigenerational epic that sweeps from San Francisco in the present day to Poland and the United States during the Second World War.

In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco's parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family's Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family - like thousands of other Japanese Americans - are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world.

Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco's charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly 70 years.

Sweeping through time and spanning generations and continents, The Japanese Lover explores questions of identity, abandonment, redemption, and the unknowable impact of fate on our lives. Written with the same attention to historical detail and keen understanding of her characters that Isabel Allende has been known for since her landmark first novel The House of the Spirits, The Japanese Lover is a profoundly moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change.

©2015 Isabel Allende (P)2015 Simon & Schuster

Beautiful story of the best humankind offers

And our worst and the realization we can be either depending on which of our sides we feed! Loved this book!

Adored it! <3

I really loved it! I was afraid of going through a sad book but it was quite the opposite. A strong, positive, direct and lovely story. Couldn't manage to keep my tears by the end. I finished my box of kerchiefs. Extremely touching!

Historical romance and love stories at their best.

Artful use of time sequencing and diverse first person voices with rich depth and development. Beautifully read.

Lovely story arc, but stereotypes and racist/exotifying

A sweeping tale than spans many characters and decades, which is what Allende does best. But her stereotypical descriptions of Japanese Americans and outdated terminology like “Oriental” made me bristle. Also she points out every time a minor character is Black - with descriptions that are simplistic. Even though Allende is a Latina, this is a tale told from a very white lens.

Blah and a disappointment

Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors, but this was a dud. I finished it, but will never think about it again. That is a shame.

Romantic

Writing style and story telling are beautiful . Characters well developed . Momentum and interest are kindled. My detractors were trying to put too many controversies in one book, i.e. the holocaust, Japanese internment, homosexuality, culture conflict , religion, coming of age.

Great story. Great characters.

What did you love best about The Japanese Lover?

The multifaceted characters.

What did you like best about this story?

The stories of unending love.

What about Joanna Gleason’s performance did you like?

Her voice was perfect.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

I wish the book had been longer and would have delved into the charters' lives even further.

Love is truly universal

I just finished this wonderful story and feel that the main achievement of the narrative was the sense that race, religion, sexual orientation, upbringing or back ground have limited affect on our heart's desires. Soul mate knows no boundaries. The story is rich in emotion and history. The tales are interwoven seamlessly over time. Truly a story to savor and lessons to learn.

Loved the book but not the reader

I doubt that such an accomplished author as Allende made the grammatical errors that stuck out to me. There were incorrect objects of prepositions and others that got my attention.

The book is so beautiful that I could overlook them, but it's not what I expect from Audible.

Allende as we love her

In this story with wonderful character development and fabulous insights into human nature amd love, Allende again shows us she can take us through and around great emotional summits and valleys with the ease and grace we expect of her.