"Immensely entertaining." --Newsday
"Poignant and remarkable." --Philadelphia Inquirer
"Warm, compassionate, engaging, and thought-provoking." --Washington Post
"With a subtle ominousness, Yamashita sets up her hopeful, prideful characters--and, in the process, the entire genre of pioneer lit--for a fall." --Village Voice
"A splendid multi-generational novel . . . rich in history and character." --San Francisco Chronicle
Particularly insightful." --Library Journal
"Informative and timely." --Kirkus
"Yamashita's heightened sense of passion and absurdity, and respect for inevitability and personality, infuse this engrossing multigenerational immigrant saga with energy, affection, and humor." --Booklist
"This enriching novel introduces Western readers to an unusual cultural experiment, and makes vivid a crucial chapter in Japanese assimilation into the West." --Publishers Weekly
The story of an idealistic band of Japanese immigrants, who arrive in Brazil in 1925 to carve a utopia out of the jungle. The dream of creating a new world, the cost of idealism, the symbiotic tie between a people and the land they settle, and the changes demanded by a new generation, all collide in this multigenerational saga.
Karen Tei Yamashita is the author of Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, Brazil-Maru, Tropic of Orange, Circle K Cycles, I Hotel, and Anime Wong, all published by Coffee House Press. I Hotel was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award and awarded the California Book Award, the American Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Award, and the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award.