20 Jul / Inheritors by Asako Serizawa [in Shelf Awareness]
Pieces of Asako Serizawa’s intriguing novel-in-interlinked-stories, Inheritors, have been published since 2005 and winning awards (O. Henry, Pushcart) since 2013. Her acknowledgements reveal “this book [took] so long to write,” but her tenacity is a gift to readers. With 13 stories featuring five generations of a globally scattered family of Japanese origins, Serizawa’s debut is a meticulously plotted narrative puzzle poised for remarkable discovery.
The Japanese patriarch, Masayuki, travels with his 15-year-old daughter, Ayumi, to visit his cousin Bob, who is cultivating rice in California (“Crop”). Ayumi remains Stateside with the white landowner’s son in 1914 and has several children (“Flight”). During World War II, her older brother Sadao commits heinous acts under orders (“Train to Harbin”), while his wife awaits news of their runaway son (“Visitor”), his fate revealed in “Last Bulwark.” While Ayumi and Sadao’s brother Masaharu is an unemployed political journalist (“Allegiance”), his wife, Masako, endures the unthinkable to save her family during the U.S. occupation (“Willow Run”). Their older son Seiji vanishes – then reappears (“I Stand Accused”); their younger son Masaaki temporarily immigrates to the U.S. but returns (“Pavilion”). Masaaki’s American daughter Luna revisits Japan only after his death (“Passing”). Her 21st-century children face new wars in “The Garden” and “Echolocation.”
Unfurled over more than 120 years with World War II at its core, Serizawa, born in Japan and living in Boston, deftly relies on rich fiction to humanize history – the kaiten suicide torpedo pilot is someone’s missing child, Matsushiro bunkers are where an adopted son was born to enslaved Korean workers. For savvy audiences ready to question “how history is made, how it is lived, remembered, reproduced, and used,” Serizawa’s amplifying revelations await.
Discover: Serizawa’s powerful debut novel-in-interlinked-stories features five generations of a scattered family with Japanese origins over 120-plus years.
Review: “Fiction,” Shelf Awareness, July 17, 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2020