From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of
How to Be an American Housewife
—the poignant story of estranged sisters reunited when a mysterious request from their ailing mother reveals a long-buried family secret.
Rachel and Drew Snow might be sisters, but their lives have followed completely different paths. Rachel is happily married but hasn’t returned to her childhood home since her strict father kicked her out after an act of careless teenage rebellion. Drew, her younger sister, pursued a passion for music but longs for the stability that has always eluded her.
But when their deferential Japanese mother, Hikari, is diagnosed with dementia, the sisters come together to locate a particular book she asks for in a rare moment of lucidity. The book—an epic saga of female samurai in twelfth-century Japan—reveals truths about Drew and Rachel’s relationship that ends up connecting them in ways that turn their differences into assets.