Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield
We meet Lucy Takeda and her daughter, Patty when a police officer arrives on their doorstep to question Lucy about a murder of a local man. On the eve of Patty's wedding, Lucy is forced to reveal the story of her time in a Japanese internment camp as a teenager.
Lucy's parents seem to have it all. Her father owns a business, her mother is a stunning beauty, they live in a nice house in Los Angeles. Soon after her father dies, Pearl Harbor happens. Everyone of Japanese decent is forced into camps. Lucy's life turns from happy and comfortable into a game of survival.
Garden of Stones paints a very dark yet realistic picture of life in these camps. Lucy was forced to grow up in a hurry. She begins to share her life story with Patty but still feels she has to hold some things back to protect Patty. But Patty is desperate to find the truth in order to get her mother released from police custody.
I loved the historical aspects of this book but struggled with the holes in the story. For me the Garden of Stones had a small and inconsequential role to the story yet it was chosen for the title. The reader is led down a very specific path about Patty's birth only to have that yanked out from under them. I'm all for twists and turns to make a story interesting, but these ended up being unrealistic. Needless to say I was disappointed in the outcome.
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