Mako Idemitsu Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, in an elite and wealthy family, author Mako Idemitsu went to the United States in 1962 where she met and married abstract expressionist painter Sam Francis. While raising two children in California she became disillusioned with the roles of wife and mother and picked up an 8mm camera. As part of a feminist consciousness-raising group she began to make experimental films that explored women's issues and Japanese cultural influences. Her artistic work is critically acclaimed and featured in museums across the world. Juliet Winters Carpenter Translator Juliet Winters Carpenter studied Japanese literature at the University of Michigan and translation at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo. Her past translations include Secret Rendezvous by Abe Kobo, Masks by Fumiko Enchi, and the works of Minae Mizumura. In 2015, she became the first person to win the prestigious Japan-US Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature twice.

"Idemitsu has written an autobiographical first novel about a young Japanese woman who comes to America to study and stays to marry, raise a child, and find her identity as a woman caught between two cultures." --Kirkus Reviews "...we should take notice and read. This is a compelling and haunting narrative tracking skillfully back and forth through histories, between mothers, sisters, daughters and wives eternally damaged by being born into a mad world and its fairy-tale curse: 'unfortunately, it's a girl'" --Judith Adams, director of Whitestone Arts "This novel follows a fiercely troubled family across generations and continents, from Japan's postwar struggles to economic recovery, and on to identity crises in the United States. Here we have an hysterical mother, a rich, domineering father, and sisters torn apart by sexual betrayal. Their search for reconciliation, at once poignant and furious, comes alive in a translation by the always superb Juliet Winters Carpenter." --Phyllis Birnbaum, author of Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy "In one of Idemitsu's novel's most memorable moments, Hiroko, a Japanese artist living in New York City, wrestles with self-doubt after her father revokes financial support." --Publisher's Weekly