The Pearl Diver

This is a sad, but beautiful story. Jeff Talarigo's prose is formidable and his words economical; he tells this unique story with elegant efficiency. It felt so real at times, I felt like I was reading a true story. I yearn to know more about this sympathetic heroine, Ms. Fuji. Talarigo's words are......more

More like a 2.5 for me but I feel that the story contained within is one that needs to be told so it will receive three stars. The story started off fine, but by the last 100 pages or so I was forcing myself to finish it (and this is a short book, a little over the 200 page mark). I wasn't too fond......more

The time 1948 in post-WW2 Japan. The story of a 19 year old girl who is sent to a leper colony. The disease never advances, but she is still forced to stay on the island of Nagashima. There she discovers the horrors and human suffering that the inhabitants of the leprosarium deal with on a daily bas......more

i almost never cry while reading books. i WEPT TWICE reading this. a haphazard and non-exhaustive list of things i liked in this, in no particular order: - what a grounded and... thoroughly sympathetic snapshot of the lives of people in the leprosarium this is! the tone is calm and muted in general,......more