Block Seventeen
by Kimiko Guthrie
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Pub Date Jun 23 2020 | Archive Date Aug 10 2020
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Description
*A Bustle Most Anticipated Book of Summer 2020*
*A Salon Must Read Novel of June 2020*
*A Pop Sugar Best Book of June 2020*
*Included in Ms. Magazine's June 2020 Reads for the Rest of Us*
*Included in The Chicago Review of Books 10 Must Read Books This June*
*A Book Bub Best Book Club Books of Summer Pick*
Akiko “Jane” Thompson, a half Japanese, half Caucasian woman in her midthirties, is attempting to forge a quietly happy life in the Bay Area with her fiancé, Shiro. But after a bizarre car accident, things begin to unravel. An intruder ransacks their apartment but takes nothing, leaving behind only cryptic traces of his or her presence. Shiro, obsessed with government surveillance, risks their security in a plot to expose the misdeeds of his employer, the TSA. Jane’s mother has seemingly disappeared, her existence only apparent online. Jane wants to ignore these worrisome disturbances until a cry from the past robs her of all peace, forcing her to uncover a long-buried family secret.
As Jane searches for her mother, she confronts her family’s fraught history in America. She learns how they survived the internment of Japanese Americans, and how fear and humiliation can drive a person to commit desperate acts.
In melodic and suspenseful prose, Guthrie leads the reader to and from the past, through an unreliable present, and, inescapably, toward a shocking revelation. Block Seventeen, at times charming and light, at others disturbing and disorienting, explores how fear of the “other” continues to shape our supposedly more enlightened times.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
“Striking and beautiful, Block Seventeen includes reflections of family, legacy, secrets, and trauma that will shake readers to the core.”
-Ms. Magazine
“Compelling…A twenty-first-century ghost story offers chills in this…promising debut.”
-Kirkus Reviews
“The reader is taken back and forth in time in an absorbing…narrative that is purposeful in its examination of how we seem to be reliving past horrors, speeding back down the same road, this time on the high-octane fuel of technology. This promising and totally immersive debut, rich in Japanese American culture, is as devastating and evocative as Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor Was Divine, with a Hitchcockian overlay of suspense.”
-Booklist
“A layered mystery shrouded in grief, paranoia, and intergenerational trauma, set in the Bay Area but located in the half-hidden histories of many of its residents who lived through the Japanese American internment camps of the not-so-distant past.”
-Thi Bui, author of The Best We Could Do
“Lightning has struck twice with Block Seventeen. With this profound and devastating look at generational trauma, Kimiko Guthrie has not only penned a stunning debut, but a vital work of speculative fiction.”
- Cadwell Turnbull, author of The Lesson
“Kimiko Guthrie has written a breezy, accessible novel that manages to defy multiple genres. Block Seventeen is part love story, part supernatural ghost tale, part family history, and part political thriller, with nothing less than the Japanese internment in America during World War Two—and today’s treatment of immigrants—coursing through its haunted, beating heart.”
-Susan Jane Gilman, New York Times bestselling author
“Block Seventeen traces parallels between past and present with a story that is sobering, hopeful, and always beautifully written.”
-David C. Fathi, director, ACLU National Prison Project
“Block Seventeen grabbed me from the first page and held me in delightful suspension till the last. A young Japanese American woman’s current life collides with the unresolved ancestral pain of her foremothers in a swirl of mystery, current-day politics, profound love, and near-madness—all couched in gorgeous prose. Guthrie is an outstanding novelist that I hope we will hear from again soon.”
-Sarah Shourd, author of A Sliver of Light and The Box
“In Block Seventeen, Kimiko Guthrie blends horrors both supernatural and all too real to create a moving portrait of family, love, and the myriad ways trauma can haunt us across generations. This is a beautiful book, one that will linger in the reader’s heart long after its final pages.”
-Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters
“A manifestly timely work…Its quiet urgency speaks to us all.”
-Michael Palmer, author of The Laughter of the Sphinx
Marketing Plan
Major prepublication buzz, outreach, and appearances
National review attention / debut author features
Digital/print advertising campaign
Literary fiction outreach and programming
Major bookseller merchandising / co-op
Bookstore and library events
Creative social media and book trailer campaign
Featured title/author at library, bookseller, and consumer trade shows and conferences
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781982678401 |
| PRICE | $26.99 (USD) |
Average rating from 29 members
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