Sisters of the Spruce
A Japanese Canadian girl defies social and cultural boundaries in Leslie Shimotakahara’s historical novel Sisters of the Spruce.
During World War I, fourteen-year-old Khya travels with her family to a remote region of British Columbia. Her father manages a logging camp; by order of the Canadian government, the region’s Sitka spruce trees will be felled to build wartime fighter planes. But housing for the Asian and Indigenous crew is “flimsy and makeshift,” and the perilous logging proceeds at a hectic pace to fulfill the project deadline.
Narrated by Khya, this is a novel of perspicacious observation, from racial tensions among the loggers to the subservient, exploited roles of women. After witnessing how vulnerable girls are forced into prostitution, Khya acts like a “tomboy” as a means of self-protection. Capable and forthright, she’s often frustrated by the more traditional, submissive behavior of her mother and older sister, Izzy.
Khya’s gender defiance emboldens her to leave home when Izzy becomes pregnant and is exiled to a nearby city to have her “shameful” baby. Khya hopes to find the child’s father and demand that he take responsibility for his actions. She also persuades her sex-worker friend, Daisy, to join her and escape her own troubled life. The girls encounter both dangers and freedom as they begin to explore their mutual romantic attraction.
The book is heightened by evocative descriptions of nature, as of the doomed, majestic Sitka trees and fog emerging like “floating spirits.” Khya’s gradual acknowledgment of the presence of Japanese “ancestral ghosts” also leads to a reconnection with her heritage and a deeper link to mystical energies within the spiritual world.
Contrasting family loyalties with a girl’s propulsive yearning for independence, Sisters of the Spruce is a captivating historical novel.
Reviewed by
Meg Nola
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