The Sea of Japan
A Novel
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
After fleeing a disastrous teaching job (and a bad gambling habit) in
Boston, Lindsey starts teaching English in Hime, a small fishing town in
Japan. One morning, while trying to snap the perfect ocean sunrise
photo for her mother, she slips off a rock at the edge of Toyama Bay,
hits her head, and plunges into the sea—and in doing so, sets off an
unexpected chain of events.
When Lindsey comes to in the
hospital, she learns that she owes her life to a young man named
Ichiro—a local fisherman who also happens to be the older brother of one
of her students. She begins to spend time with her lifesaver, and in
the ensuing months, she becomes increasingly enmeshed in her new life:
when she is not busy teaching, she splits her time between an
apprenticeship with the local master sushi chef and going out fishing
with Ichiro. As she and Ichiro grow closer, however, she also learns
that not all is well in Hime, and she is drawn into a war to stop the
town next door from overfishing their shared bay. Soon, she, Ichiro, and
her pastrami-obsessed best friend, Judy—the person who talked Lindsey
into coming to Japan in the first place—are spending all their free time
working together to rescue the town. But when their efforts backfire,
Hime gets closer to falling apart—putting Lindsey’s friends, her budding
relationship with Ichiro, and her career in jeopardy. To save Hime,
Lindsey realizes, she’ll have to become a true American fisherwoman and
fight for her new home with everything she has.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cultures collide in this unsatisfying contemporary novel from Nagano (Rachel Assigned to Tokyo). Lindsey, an unhappy American, wants a new challenge, so she travels to Hime, a small fishing village in Japan, to teach English. Ichiro, a local fisherman, saves Lindsey from drowning and encourages her to learn more about Hime's diminishing fishing industry. When tension at school surges, Lindsey quits her teaching job and gets a job on Ichiro's boat. After learning that the town is at the brink of bankruptcy, she brainstorms ideas by visiting different fishing ports and creates a plan that could revitalize the economy, benefit everyone, and give her a new sense of purpose. But her plans are circumvented when a big corporation proposes a new deal with the governor, and Lindsey must figure out another way to save Hime. While Nagano portrays Japan with delightful prose, the fishing politics talk drags on. Lindsey's unrealistic and convenient ability to succeed at everything she tries makes conflicts too easy to resolve, and there's no escaping the discomfort of a white American saving the day while the locals look on admiringly. A lack of real character growth hamstrings this too-pat story.
