"The more Henry thought about the shabby old knickknacks, forgotten treasures, the more it seemed as if his own broken heart might be found in there, hidden among the unclaimed possessions of another time."

Henry, a widower in his late 50’s, stood outside the Panama Hotel in Seattle as the new owners carted out boxes containing personal items of Japanese families who were evacuated to internment camps during WW II. A beautiful parasol evoked memories of the past he struggled to forget.

Years earlier, Chinese-American Henry was "scholarshipping" — as his father would proudly announce to anyone — in an all-white school when he met Keiko, a Japanese-American girl, who was also helping out in the cafeteria serving lunches. Their friendship, forged in defiance against school bullies and parental pressures, withstood the passing of the years.

Jamie Ford’s first book of fiction The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is the story of Henry and Keiko, both 12, who fall in love against their family wishes at a time when prejudice toward Japanese-Americans was so divisive. It was a dark period in America, full of fears and paranoia.

Ford writes so poignantly not only of the innocence, the purity, the intensity of first love, but of the layers of "bitter and sweet" in our lives.

Cristina Lozare – Central Library