Fifty Words for Rain: A GMA Book Club Pick

A Novel

By: Asha Lemmie

Narrated by: Robin Eller, Siho Ellsmore, Katharine Lee McEwan, Jeena Yi, Sarah Skaer, Louis Ozawa

A Good Morning America Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller!

From debut author Asha Lemmie, “a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together.” —Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Nightingale

Kyoto, Japan, 1948. “Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist.”

Such is eight-year-old Noriko “Nori” Kamiza’s first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents’ imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin.

The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might cost her everything.

Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free.

Unusual ending

I loved the story but was unpleasantly surprised by the ending. The ending was not congruent with the story.

The story went nowhere in the end.

It had a strong beginning, pointless middle and didn’t really have an ending. It just fizzled out. Such a disappointment.

a great listen

I loved the story and the narators. I listened in Audible. I was sad for the main character Nordy and loved to hate many of the others.

Must Read

Excellent book with many twist and turns. I had a difficult time setting it aside to perform my routine daily tasks . Enjoy

Beautifully written and elegantly told

Such powerful writing that I felt like I was growing with the main character, experiencing her pain, sorrow, hope, and joy. A story that I didn’t want to end.