This 2022 release made me an instant Julie Otsuka fan: I laughed, I cried, I dove into her backlist. This slim story begins with the collective narrative of the devoted regular swimmers at a community pool. But one day a crack appears in the bottom of the pool and it's soon closed to the swimmers. No longer able to gather for their laps, the swimmers are forced to individually deal with the grave disruption to their routine, and no one is affected more than elderly Alice, whose story takes over the narrative. The surprising pivot from snappy social commentary to a devastating portrait of encroaching dementia is effective and moving. Otsuka is a master of the tiny details throughout, be they witty or heartbreaking.

Written in first person plural, this slim historical novel embodies the collective voices of a group of young Japanese women traveling to San Francisco as mail-order brides. Over the course of thirty years, we follow them on the boat to their first night as young brides and through the difficulties of assimilating to the US and raising children, culminating in their families being sent to internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.