Butterfly's Child

This arresting new novel from Davis-Gardner (Plum Wine) picks up where Puccini's Madama Butterfly leaves off. When Pinkerton returns to Japan with his American wife, they must decide what to do with his former lover Butterfly's son, Benji, after her suicide. Rather than leave him to a life in the streets of Nagasaki, Pinkerton and Kate take Benji to their farm in Illinois. Gradually, Benji adjusts to life in America, but his parentage is never discussed. The community is told he is an orphan they adopted to raise as a Christian. Benji is intelligent and hardworking but never forgets life in Japan or his mother, and it is his life's ambition to return to his homeland. When the truth of his background is revealed to his intolerant community, Benji flees, alone, to make his way West and ultimately back to Japan. In Nagasaki, he works hard for his future success while also seeking out answers to the mysteries of his past. VERDICT Very appealing, and not just for fans of Davis-Gardner's previous work or fans of Japanese American fiction, this is the type of novel many readers will want to finish in one sitting. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/10.]—Shaunna Hunter, Hampden-Sydney Coll. Lib., VA