Ben Ohara is the sole surviving member his family. A troubled and brilliant astrophysicist, Ben's younger brother has mysteriously vanished in the Mojave Desert. His father, one of a small group of WWII draft resisters (known as the No-No Boys) during the internment of Japanese Americans, committed suicide when Ben was young. And his mother, whose wish to escape the past was as strong as his father's ties to it, has died with her secrets.

Now struggling to support his wife and children, and under pressure to complete his historical study, Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire, Ben realizes that the key to unlocking the future lies in reassessing the past.

As Ben vividly recalls a childhood colored by the tough Chicago streets, horror movie monsters, sci-fi villains, Japanese folktales, and TV war heroes, he begins to understand the profound difference between coming of age and becoming a man. And by retracing his brother's footsteps and returning to the site of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp, Ben uncovers a truth that has the power to set him free.

"In this uneven debut novel from poet and memoirist Mura (Turning Japanese), third-generation Japanese-American Ben Ohara is haunted by the legacy of the WWII internment camps. Both of his parents were detained, and his father, Takeshi, was a 'No-No Boy' whose refusal to join the armed forces planted the seed of his miserable demise by suicide. Now a 40-something 'itinerant historian,' Ben receives a postcard sent 10 years earlier from his troubled younger brother, Tommy, shortly before he disappeared in the Mojave Desert. The long-delayed message revives Ben's interest in his unfinished book, a project that 'betray[s] my lifelong fascination with the origins of my family's grief and madness.' Ben delves into his family's past in an attempt to understand what happened to his father and brother, and while the novel's first half vividly recounts Ben's childhood in Chicago's rough Uptown neighborhood, the second half sees the narrative losing energy as it becomes more contemplative and big family secrets are blandly revealed. Mura writes beautiful sentences, but the story becomes more slack just as it should be intensifying." Publishers Weekly

"Despite the distinct stories about suicides and the Japanese internment camps, the novel is more like a patchwork of fiction and historical facts that does not hold together well." Library Journal

"There is no writer that dives deeper (or more bravely) into the chasm that is the human heart. David Mura's first novel is a tour de force: luminously written and by turns crafty, tough, wise, and joyful." Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

"There is no writer that dives deeper (or more bravely) into the chasm that is the human heart. [David Mura's] first novel is a tour de force: luminously written and by turns crafty, tough, wise, and joyful."-Junot Daz

Ben Ohara is the sole surviving member his family. A troubled and brilliant astrophysicist, Ben's younger brother has mysteriously vanished in the Mojave Desert. His father, one of a small group of WWII draft resisters (known as the No-No Boys) during the internment of Japanese Americans, committed suicide when Ben was young. And his mother, whose wish to escape the past was as strong as his father's ties to it, has died with her secrets.

Now struggling to support his wife and children and under pressure to complete his historical study, Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire, Ben realizes that the key to unlocking the future lies in reassessing the past.

As Ben vividly recalls a childhood colored by the tough Chicago streets, horror movie monsters, sci-fi villains, Japanese folktales, and TV war heroes, he begins to understand the profound difference between coming of age and becoming a man. And by retracing his brother's footsteps and returning to the site of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp, Ben uncovers a truth that has the power to set him free.

An acclaimed memoirist, poet, and playwright, David Mura is one of America's most insightful cultural critics. His memoirs, Turning Japanese and Where the Body Meets Memory, along with his poems, essays, plays, and performances, have won wide critical praise and numerous awards. Visit his website at www.davidmura.com.

An acclaimed memoirist, poet, and playwright, David Mura is one of America's most insightful cultural critics. His memoirs, Turning Japanese and Where the Body Meets Memory, along with his poems, essays, plays, and performances, have won wide critical praise and numerous awards. Visit his website at www.davidmura.com