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The Buddha in the Attic
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The Buddha in the Attic tells the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides” a century ago in this “understated masterpiece … that unfolds with great emotional power”

    -San Francisco Chronicle

In eight unforgettable sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces the picture brides’ extraordinary lives, from their arduous journey by boat, where they exchange photographs of their husbands, imagining uncertain futures in an unknown land;...  READ MORE

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Awards& Recognitions

PEN/Faulkner Award Winner

National Book Award Finalist

France’s Prix Femina Étranger Winner

Albatros Literaturpreis Winner

Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction Winner

American Academy of Arts and Letters Literary Award Winner

​Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Finalist

A San Francisco Chronicle and Boston Globe Best Book the Year

Named a Top Ten Book by Library Journal and Vogue

A New York Times Notable Book

A New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times bestseller

Published worldwide in 22 languages

Praise and Reviews

“Otsuka combines the tragic power of a Greek chorus with the intimacy of a confession… An understated masterpiece…[that] seems destined to endure.”

– Jane Ciabattari, San Francisco Chronicle

“Arresting and alluring. . . . A novel that feels expansive yet is a magical act of compression.”

– Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune (Editor’s choice)

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About This Book

In eight unforgettable sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces the picture brides’ 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.

 

Julie Otsuka has written a spellbinding novel about identity and loyalty, and what it means to be an American in uncertain times.

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