When twelve-year-old Sayuri Kato and her little brother Keiji enter the root cellar in their new home, they find themselves transported to Living Earth, a magical world in which humans are the storybook creatures, and kappas, shape-shifting foxes, onis, and tanukis are creatures of reality. When Keiji is lost, Sayuri must journey through this myth-inhabited land, and accompanied by her new friends Echo and Machigai she learns important lessons along the way about philosophical and moral balance. The arch-villain of the story is Great Uncle Mischief the fox, who calls himself the Patriarch. He has devoted himself to the acquisition of power, destroying Living Earth and its inhabitants in the process. He is not evil, in an absolute sense, although his actions most certainly are. The strong feminist and ecological themes of this fantasy are worked seemlessly into the excellent writing and storytelling. One of the strongest entries in Coteau's "In the Same Boat" multi-cultural series.

This story of three generations of Japanese Canadian women in rural Alberta relates the immigrant experience through the conflict between three incredible women--a grandmother who will not speak English, a daughter who will not speak Japanese, and a granddaughter torn between the two extremes and struggling with her identity as a Japanese Canadian. It also deals with the characters' struggle to shape their environments and establish themselves in their not-so-new community. In their adopted country, they make new accomodations not only to the past but to each other.

The first Novel from the Canadian-Japanese author Hiromi Goto.
The novel tells the story of three generations of Japanese Canadian women lives in Canada, who seeks their special identity: the grandma who refuses to give up from her Japanese roots (and who hides salted squid in her pockets...), her daughter Kaiku who wants to be "real" Canadian and therefore refuses to speak Japanese, and the grandchild, Murial-Morasaki who is in a quest for her Japanese roots and who struggles to find a cultural identity somewhere between the two.
This vivid life (and love) story is integrated with Japanese folk legends.
I found it very warm, exquisite and honest, sometimes amusing and sometimes very mellow and sad. Great first novel and very mature.
The book won the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best First Book.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. The agony and joy of intergenerational struggles, intensified by immigrant worries, comes through on every page. Readers follow Murasaki's journey to know her grandmother's story through such imaginative contours. Canadian or not, anyone can identify with an adolescent's awkwardness; and everyone stands to learn from the struggle against racism that emerges on the Canadian prairies.