The Woman In The White Kimono

It’s been a while since I last blogged—and rightly so.

2021 has been a year of loss. Loss of loved ones. Loss of hope. Loss of courage. Loss of words.

So when I came across The Woman In The White Kimono by award-winning, international bestselling author, Ana Johns, I turned the page not knowing I was in for a spiral of a read.

The story is set in dual timelines, post-war Japan, 1957, and present-day Japan and centers around Tori Kovac’s search for her present by piecing the puzzle of the past. With two points of view and three narratives intertwining the dual time-lines, I was already addicted to the story. Add to the mix culture clash, a story rooted deep in society’s beliefs and characters tethered to a hierarchy of conflicting values and I could not stop turning the page!

Hop over to some of my favorite reads and the diversity of stories: One Amazing Thing, by Chitra Divakaruni, Sea Prayer to Mountains and Kites to 1000 Splendid Suns – books by Khaled Hosseini, The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by International bestseller, Alka Joshi, and Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

If you loved Memoirs of a Geisha by Bestseller, Arthur Golden, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by International Bestseller, Khaled Hosseini and Snowflower And The Secret Fan by New York Times Bestseller, Lisa See, you’re just going to LOVE The Woman In The White Kimono by Ana Johns.

Why?

Seventeen-year-old Naoko Nakamura is arranged to marry the man of her family’s choosing in accordance with Japanese culture, 1957 post-war Japan. However, Naoko is determined to marry her one and true love, an American sailor, Jimmy Porter. Jimmy meets the Nakamuras and seeks Naoko’s hand with the family’s blessings. However, he is rejected and Naoko is threatened with dire consequences if she refutes the family’s wishes.

Then Naoko discovers she is pregnant with Jimmy’s child and all hell breaks loose.

On the other end of the spectrum in present day USA, Jimmy suffers from a chronical illness and shares the pieces of his past with daughter, Tori Kovac. Jimmy unfolds forbidden love for Naoko, the marriage to Naoko destined for death, hints of a secret so deeply rooted in the past and buried with the passage of time that Tori must fly half-way around the world to unearth the unknown.

Will Jimmy survive to tell the tale?

Will Tori travel to Japan?

Is Naoko alive and if so, where is she?

And if Tori finds Naoko, can she handle the truth of a missing piece of her life that will change the wheels of time forever?

Need I say much more?

Buy The Woman In The White Kimono.

Ana’s writing is exquisite and her characters so life-like that you’ll be yearning to know what happens next to Naoko and Tori in their struggles to find one another and the melding of two time-lines.

Ana’s story reminded me that hope arises from hopeless. Courage rises from the ashes of falling and finding the strength to stand up again stems from determination. Loss of words is nothing more than heart break and then organizing jumbled feelings and thoughts and spelling them on the page. The Woman In The White Kimono is a story of hope, determination, willpower and true love that lights the darkness of hate and anger. It’s a story you won’t forget and a book that will keep you turning the page long into the night.

Like a beacon of hope.