A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding

October 12, 2015
In Copleton’s uneven debut, Takahashi is visited in her old age by a man who claims to be Hideo, the grandson she believes had died during the WWII bombing of Nagasaki, which triggers memories. Amaterasu learns that Hideo was found in an orphanage and raised by Jomei Sato, an old friend of Amaterasu’s husband, Kenzo. Amaterasu remembers how she and Kenzo attempted to keep the married and much older Jomei from their 16-year-old daughter, Yuko. Amaterasu gets a better sense of the past after going through her daughter’s journals and reading letters Jomei had written to Yuko after her death, though she remains wary of Hideo and bitter about Jomei’s actions. Copleton breathes life into the first two-thirds of the book, an often-poignant narrative of the many forms of love and loss, though it’s somewhat hindered by the diary and letter-writing formats. Unfortunately, a dark secret that’s hinted at and revealed in the final act of the novel is quite outlandish, and it derails the work of the previous chapters. Though the story has many moving passages and an initially intriguing plot, the denouement strains credibility.

September 15, 2015
In British novelist Copleton's debut, family secrets and betrayals demand to be reckoned with, even after a world-shattering tragedy changes everything. Grief-stricken, Amaterasu Takahashi and her husband, Kenzo, fled their hometown of Nagasaki, Japan, after losing their daughter and grandson to the atomic bomb. Almost 40 years later, widowed and friendless in Pennsylvania, Amaterasu's main companion is alcohol-until a disfigured man appears on her doorstep and claims to be her lost grandson, Hideo. His appearance sets off a firestorm of memories as Amaterasu reads a bundle of letters meant to prove their relation. Twenty-first-century readers will wonder why Amaterasu doesn't usher Hideo to the nearest doctor's office for a DNA test. Somewhat conveniently, the novel takes place in the 1980s, before such technology existed. As it is, Amaterasu's dilemma raises questions-what does it mean to accept a long-lost relative? Why and how is it worth it, when you can't know for sure? Amaterasu is hard but not bitter as she recounts her history, using calm and deliberate storytelling to draw full pictures of life before, during, and after the war. Copleton's perfectly paced hints and reveals of the Takahashi family secrets heighten the drama without causing the reader to feel manipulated. Each chapter begins by defining a thematically relevant Japanese word or concept, which adds cultural context to the novel without slowing the pace of the story or becoming overly didactic. Though Amaterasu's current life is defined by the bombing of Nagasaki, the novel is more than just a war story, taking readers back to her teen years and her life as a mother, when forbidden romances set the course for the future. A fully drawn portrait of a city and a life, this novel will hold appeal for history buffs, lovers of literary fiction, and readers of high-drama romance.

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December 1, 2015

Having lost daughter Yuko and seven-year-old grandson Hideo nearly 40 years previously in the bombing of Nagasaki, Amaterasu Takahashi finds her wounds painfully reopened when a disfigured man mysteriously arrives on her doorstep in the United States, claiming to be Hideo. Coming from Japan, Hideo brings Amaterasu a note from his adoptive mother, coincidentally the wife of an old family friend, and a package containing letters to his mother, Yuko. What unfolds is the story not only of Amaterasu's mission to determine whether the man claiming to be Hideo is truly her long-lost grandson but also of other individuals who intersected in Amaterasu's past. VERDICT In this debut, Copleton has successfully produced a well-crafted and lightly suspenseful tale of true and forbidden love and a wealth of secret revelations. Her strong characterizations recall those of writers such as Margaret Dalloway and Gail Tsukiyama. Readers who enjoy those authors' works, as well as Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha and Katherine Govier's The Printmaker's Daughter, will be drawn to this story.--Shirley Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA

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