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Saturday, June 29, 2019

Daughter of Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

I read this for my parent's book group, and while I had never heard of the author, nor had I read the book that precedes it, I enjoyed it.
Ruth is born of mixed Hawaiian and Japanese parents to a mother who had leprosy.  She was raised in an orphanage full of children like her, and many of them were doomed to live their lives there, never adopted due to the stigma of their origins.  Not so Ruth.  She is adopted by a Japanese family who have a bit of a secret around why they wanted her, but they are wither ignorant of her social standing or don't care, and love her dearly.
She lives through racial profiling in California's Central Valley, her family loses all their assets when they are deported to a relocation camp, and upon their release they find that feelings run high and returning to farming is not an option.  She is lucky that most of her family made it through the war, and she is in a good relationship.
The final chapter is a return of her birth mother into her life, and a fuller understanding of what happened to her.  It is rich in feeling and culture, and well worth reading.

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