First published 2017
Alma Belasco arrives in San Francisco in 1939, a Polish refugee sent by her parents to escape the Nazis. At her aunt and uncle's mansion, she meets Ichimei Fukuda, the Japanese gardener's gentle son. Their secret romance blooms until Pearl Harbor changes everything. The government declares Japanese Americans enemies and forces Ichimei's family into internment camps. Alma and Ichimei spend decades reuniting in stolen moments, always hiding their love from a hostile world. Years later, care worker Irina Bazili tends to elderly Alma at Lark House nursing home. Irina befriends Alma's grandson Seth, and together they discover mysterious letters and gifts arriving for Alma. These clues reveal the forbidden passion that has sustained Alma and Ichimei for nearly seventy years, a love story that defied war, racism, and time itself.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-romance, star-crossed-lovers
Setting: San Francisco, Lark House Nursing Home
Period: 1939, World War II
Paperback · FERYANE
Content warnings: racism, war