iRead灰熊愛讀書愛，遺失了，卻永遠沒被遺忘！
當年，兩小無猜的純愛真情，是父親心底深處永遠的聖杯
在即將成為終生的遺憾前，兒子給了他實現承諾的勇氣....
一部關於「體諒」、「勇氣」與「真愛」的故事
紐約時報、獨立書商協會、出版者週刊、洛杉磯時報排行榜
亨利遇到那群圍在巴拿馬飯店外的人，這間旅館曾經是西雅圖「日本街」的大門口，在塵封幾十年之後，新業主卻有驚人的發現：二次大戰期間被集結送往拘留營的日本家庭，他們當年來不及帶走的東西全在這兒。亨利在一旁觀看，看到業主打開一把日本傘，想起當年的那個女孩是否也曾留下一些什麼......
這麼一個簡單的動作，把亨利帶回往昔的時光，以及他對父親的回憶，當時他的父親沉迷在中國的抗日情緒和希望亨利成為美國人的想法裡，他讓亨利在昂貴的白人學校就讀，卻不知亨利受盡白人同學的欺侮。那時，亨利認識了日裔美國女孩惠子。在不平靜的戰爭時期，亨利和惠子編織出一段友誼與純純的愛，他們相信，戰爭終會結束，他們對彼此的承諾也將實現。
四十年後，深信這把傘屬於惠子的亨利，終於有機會進入滿布灰塵的旅館地下室，試著搜尋惠子當年來不及帶走的東西，以及一件失落已久的黑膠唱片。
因為，當年縈繞他們一生的旋律，從未停止在內心裡吟唱曾經酸甜痛楚的年少戀情......
★本書中譯本《悲喜邊緣的旅館》由馬可孛羅出版
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.
This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry's world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While "scholarshipping" at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship-and innocent love-that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.
Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel's dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice-words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.
Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.
作者簡介
傑米．福特（Jamie Ford）
是內華達州早期礦工鄭明的曾孫。鄭明在一八六五年從中國廣東移民舊金山，任意選用了一個西方的姓「福特」，成為作者的姓氏由來。傑米本名是「詹姆斯」，在祖母的口中，詹姆斯成了廣東話的「家美」（Ja-Mei），傑米（Jamie）於是成了作者的小名。由於這段特殊的身世，促成了他寫下這部作品。傑米在大學讀的是藝術，一直在廣告界工作，曾以短篇小說獲獎。個人網頁：www.jamieford.com
Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated from Kaiping, China, to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the Western name "Ford," thus confusing countless generations. Ford is an award-winning short-story writer, an alumnus of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and a survivor of Orson Scott Card's Literary Boot Camp. Having grown up near Seattle's Chinatown, he now lives in Montana with his wife and children.
www.jamieford.com
