Evergreen

By Naomi Hirahara.

It’s been two years since Aki Ito and her  family were released from Manzanar detention center and resettled in  Chicago with other Japanese Americans. Now the Itos have finally been  allowed to return home to California—but nothing is as they left it. The entire Japanese American community is starting from scratch, with  thousands of people living in dismal refugee camps while they struggle  to find new houses and jobs in over-crowded Los Angeles.

Aki is working as a nurse’s aide at the Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights when  an elderly Issei man is admitted with suspicious injuries. When she  seeks out his son, she is shocked to recognize her husband’s best  friend, Babe Watanabe. Could Babe be guilty of elder abuse?

Only a  few days later, Little Tokyo is rocked by a murder at the low-income  hotel where the Watanabes have been staying. When the cops start  sniffing around Aki’s home, she begins to worry that the violence  tearing through her community might threaten her family. What secrets  have the Watanabes been hiding, and can Aki protect her husband from  getting tangled up in a murder investigation?  

Hardbound: 312 pp.

Also available:

Paperback - Clark and Division

Los Angeles's Boyle Heights