Julie Otsuka, nominated for the 2011 National Book Award forThe Buddha in the Attic, will be atSymphony Spacethis week. Otsuka, also the author ofWhen the Emperor Was Divine,will be discussingThe Buddha in the Attic, with the performer and essayist David Rakoff (Fraud, Half Empty). The book traces the lives of a group of Japanese picture brides who come to America in the early 1900s, beginning with the boat journey on which they imagine their husbands and concluding with their “disappearance” during World War II. Like Otsuka’s first book,The Buddha in the Atticis about identity and what it means to be “other” in uncertain times. An excerpt will be performed byRita Wolf.The Buddha in the Atticis on the2011 Great Group Reads listand Otsuka was kind enough to be on ourpanel of authorsfor the 2011 New York National Reading Group Month event.
