Obasan

Part of the groundbreaking Kanata Classics list, with a new introduction by Kyo Maclear, Obasan is a landmark novel that tells the story of a young Japanese Canadian girl whose childhood is shattered by the internment of her family during the Second World War.

Naomi is just five years old when the bombing of Pearl Harbor changes her life forever. Separated from her mother, she watches in bewilderment as she and her family are labelled enemy aliens, uprooted from their home, and persecuted in their own country. Surrounded by hardship and pain, Naomi is protected by the resolute endurance of her aunt, Obasan. Years later, as an adult, Naomi finds the courage to confront the silence surrounding her childhood and reckon with the profound losses that shaped her family forever.