The Winds of Mitamura: A Novel

In this haunting novel, John Ball returns to the setting he evoked so beautifully in his earlier success, Miss One Thousand Spring Blossoms. Set against the exquisite landscape of rural Japan, The Winds of Mitamura weaves an engrossing contemporary story of how people from radically different backgrounds seek in individual ways for respect, mutual understanding, and love. Peter Storm, an assistant professor of sociology, receives the plum assignment of his career: to study at first hand the effects of modern technology on a remote Japanese rice farming village. His partner on the project is a young black graduate student named Marjorie Saunders. Because the sponsors of the project do not want "expert" preconceptions to interfere with fresh observations, both Peter and Marjorie are ignorant of a crucial prejudice: the rural Japanese have a deep-rooted fear of dark-skinned people. Worst of all, the inhabitants of this particular village, Mitamura, have a very special reason to dread blacks—a reason that almost costs Peter and Marjorie their lives.