Brazil-Maru / a novel by Karen Tei Yamashita.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yamashita, Karen Tei, 1951-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Japanese--Brazil--History--Fiction.

Japanese.

Brazil.

History.

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

248 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : Coffee House Press, 1992.

Summary:

When the United States closed its doors to Japanese immigrants, hundreds of thousands of them made their way to the coffee plantations and the then-open spaces of Brazil. In this engrossing multigenerational novel, award-winning author Karen Tei Yamashita tells the story of one idealistic band of these immigrants, who arrive in 1925 on a ship named the Brazil-Maru and set out to carve a utopia out of the jungle. Led by the charismatic Kantaro Uno, the pioneers create a civilization built around his passions for baseball, painting, chickens, and their own socialist sentiments. They endure struggles in clearing the land, maintaining their identity, adapting to a new world, and fighting the backlash caused by World War II. Inevitably, however, the turbulent course Kantaro has set leads the community called Esperanca in a direction no one could have predicted. Told through the eyes of five characters covering three generations of Esperanca's history, Brazil-Maru explores themes that resonate with the reality of all immigrant history: the dream of creating a new world, the cost of idealism, the symbiotic tie between a people and the land they settle, and the changes demanded by the appearance of a new generation.

ISBN:

1566890004 :

OCLC:

25964827