The Diplomat's Daughter

For fans of All the Light We Cannot See and Orphan Train, the author of the “thought-provoking” (Library Journal, starred review) and “must-read” (PopSugar) novel The Gilded Years crafts a moving historical tale following three young people trying to survive the atrocities of World War II in Texas, Japan, and China, and—miraculously—find love.

During the turbulent months following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, twenty-one-year-old Emi Kato, the daughter of a Japanese diplomat, is locked behind barbed wire in a Texas interment camp, the victim of misfortune and America’s new policies of fear. Plagued by fence sickness, her world changes when she meets Christian Lange, whose German-born parents were wrongfully arrested for un-American activities. Together, they live as prisoners with thousands of other German and Japanese families, but discover that young love can triumph over even the most unjust circumstances.

When Emi and her mother are abruptly sent bank to Japan, Christian enlists in the US Army, with his sights set on the Pacific front—and reuniting with Emi. Sent away for her safety, Emi lives out the war in a Japanese resort town where many in the foreign community have fled, including both Jaws and Nazis. When she overhears a German officer boasting of the men he has murdered in Asia, fate brings Emi back to Leo Hartmann, the son of prominent Austrian Jews, now a refugee in Shanghai—her oldest friend and her first love. Fearing for his life, Emi sets her sights on finding Leo. But will Christian’s devotion be strong enough to stop her?

Hurtled together by war, passion, and extraordinary acts of selflessness, the paths of these three remarkable young people collide as the fighting on the Pacific front crescendos. With her “elegant and extremely gratifying” (USA TODAY) storytelling, Tanabe paints a stunning portrait of a turning point in history.