The Buddha in the Attic - Julie Otsuka

The Buddha in the Attic is a tour de force of economy and precision, a novel that tells the story of a group of young women brought over from Japan to San Francisco as ‘picture brides’ nearly a century ago.

In eight incantatory sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces their extraordinary lives, from their arduous journey by boat, where they exchange photographs of their husbands, imagining uncertain futures in an unknown land; to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives; to their backbreaking work picking fruit in the fields and scrubbing the floors of white women; to their struggles to master a new language and a new culture; to their experiences in childbirth, and then as mothers, raising children who will ultimately reject their heritage and their history; to the deracinating arrival of war.

In language that has the force and the fury of poetry, Julie Otsuka has written a singularly spellbinding novel about the American dream.

This was a really good book. It was set out in a unique way using multiple voices at one to demonstrates how different each of their lives were back then.  

Although it was a quick read (I read it in 3 days on the commute to and from work) it gave an in-depth look about a time I didn't really know about.

Definitely worth a read.