The Japanese Lover [en]

This was the first Isabel Allende book I read and it was not bad.

It is the story of a Jewish woman, Alma, and a Japanese man, Ichime, who meet in San Francisco while they are children and who love each other for the rest of their lives, even though they spend most of their lives apart (and ultimately married to other people). It’s also the story of a young woman, Irina, who tries to deal with her really difficult past.

It was a good story overall but I did not really like Alma, and there were quite a few people with names that sounded a bit too similar to me so I got confused a few times. I did not guess Alma’s husband’s secret, nor Alma’s secret for the last three years, so that was nice. I also found the part about the Topaz concentration camp (in Utah) very interesting. I didn’t know the story of the « No-No Boys. »

So not a great book but still a good book that I’m glad I listened to.