About the Author
David Guterson received an M.F.A. from the University of Washington and is a Guggenheim Fellow. He is a former contributing editor to Harper's magazine and is a co-founder of Field's End, an organization for writers.

About this Book
This novel covers the treatment of the Japanese in the Pacific Northwest during WW II when out of prejudice they were interred in camps.

The story is set in 1950s on Washington's remote San Piedro Island and begins with a mysterious death of a fisherman. Kabuo Miyamoto is accused of the fisherman's murder, suspicion aroused more out of the post-war distrust of Japanese-Americans than anything else. To complicate this, the town's newspaperman, Ishmael Chamber, must deal with his own feelings from childhood for his love of Kabuo's wife, Hatsue. At the heart of the book is a mysterious murder.