"You make a whole life out of gestures and politeness," Sunny tells her adoptive father, Franklin Hata. Born in Korea and raised in Japan, Franklin deflects everyone - even his daughter - with courtesy and impenetrable decorum, becoming a respected elder in his small, prosperous American town.
As Sunny tries to unpick her father's scrupulous self-control, the story he has repressed emerges: his life as a medic in the Japanese army and his love for a woman who is a soldier's chattel. The tragic tension between Franklin's need to communicate the horror which has shaped his life, and the guilt which has kept him silent, forms the heart of this unforgettable work of humane understanding.
'A Gesture Life' is a haunting, compelling exploration of the Japanese experience of the Second World War, and the fate of their Comfort Women, from the winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award.
