About the Book

HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET

A debut novel by

Jamie Ford

Praise for
HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET

“The exploration of Henry’s changing relationship with his family and with Keiko will keep readers turning pages … A timely debut that not only reminds readers of a shameful episode in American history, but cautions us to examine the present and take heed we don’t repeat those injustices.”
 —Kirkus Reviews

“In his first novel, award-winning short-story writer Ford expertly nails the sweet innocence of first love, the cruelty of racism, the blindness of patriotism, the astonishing unknowns between parents and their children, and the sadness and satisfaction at the end of a life well lived.  The result is a vivid picture of a confusing and critical time in American history.”
 —Library Journal

“This impressive, bitter, and sweet debut novel explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle area during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love.”
—Lisa See, bestselling author of
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Jamie Ford’s lyrical debut novel HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET (Ballantine Books Hardcover; On Sale: January 27, 2009) begins with an event that happened in real life.  In the opening pages, the fictional protagonist Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel—once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown, and still standing today.  It has been boarded up for decades, but the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II.   As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes Henry back to the 1940s, at the height of the war.  Young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement.  His father, obsessed with the war in China and determined that Henry grow up American, sends him to the exclusive Ranier Elementary.  The white kids ignore him, but Henry soon meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American and fellow scholarship student.  Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship—and innocent love—that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors.  When Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry cling to each other and hope that the war will end.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is convinced that the parasol belonged to Keiko.  In the hotel’s dark dusty basement, he begins looking for the Okabe family’s belongings, and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure.  Now a widower, Henry also searches for his own voice—in order to explain the actions of his nationalistic father; bridge the gap between him and his own modern, Chinese-American son; and help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo. Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. 

HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET

By Jamie Ford

A Ballantine Books Hardcover  š On Sale: January 27, 2009

$24.00 š 978-0-345-50533-0