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Book Review of Hotel on the corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel on the corner of Bitter and Sweet
smileen avatar reviewed on + 267 more book reviews


I just reread this book because I recommended it to my book club. It was just as wonderful the second time! It's based on the story of when they put Japanese people living in the US into internment camps during World War Two. The story takes place then, and also in 1986, when they are opening up the famous Panama Hotel in Seattle because during renovations, they found the belongings of many families who put them there for safekeeping when they were taken away. Henry, a Chinese boy born in the US and living in Seattle, is sent to an all American school as a child. He strikes up a friendship with Keiko, a Japanese girl born in the US, also at the school. The two outcasts strike up a forbidden friendship, which lasts until her family is forced to relocate. Very heartwarming story.