Read an Excerpt

"I hope that [readers'] curiosity is piqued for the Japan that is
not sleek and urban, not the exclusive world of geisha and
samurai." The words of first-time novelist Holly Thompson set the
tone for her exquisite book, ASH. When a young woman returns to the
Japanese town where she grew up and is confronted by both the
depressing conditions of the town, thanks to the active volcano
that sits high above it and the ash it strews all over everything,
she must face both her future and the past that has called her
back. Filled with grief, struggling again with a loss that nearly
destroyed her as a child, Caitlin Ober rambles through her teaching
position --- swimming to escape, hanging with a group of
windsurfers to pass the time, putting a firewall between her
boyfriend and her passion. ASH is the story of a summer that brings
her face to face with a version of her lost friend, a half-Japanese
teen who seems lost between two identities. Under the significant
and raucous festival of O-Bon, in which the spirits of the dead
come back to visit the living, Caitlin finds herself stepping out
of her old clothes and slipping tentatively into a whole new
outlook on life.

Thompson doesn't do anything fancy with her language, and for that
we can be thankful. In fact, her storytelling is so straightforward
that you would expect it to be emotionless. Yet, at every turn, you
will be surprised by the depth and breadth of her heart, her
ability to create characters (particularly Naomi, the lost teen)
that will stay with you and compel you through the rest of the
story. The endless details about Japanese life (the food, clothing,
customs of the people with whom Caitlin lives in Kagoshima) almost
bog down the narrative but, thanks to the painstakingly rendered
relationship between the woman searching for a future she can take
hold of with happiness and the teen whose dual identity stunts her
in every way, these details end up serving a significant purpose.
Like a cinematic close-up, they provide the rich and textured
backdrop against which this story sits. And the volcano, always
brewing in the background, scattering its waste about the town like
dust on a city windowsill, maintains an important position in the
story: we keep waiting for Caitlin's world to blow, and when it
does, the ash cannot cover the exceptional strides she has made
into the rest of her life.

The friendship of the young women is a deep and moving one.
Caitlin's hardscrabble emotional existence with her boyfriend is
not quite as compelling --- you keep wanting to tell her to push
ahead, but she is so reticent. Like you would with your own best
friend, you want to protect and also to help liberate Caitlin from
her demons. As the story moves on, you will find yourself wishing
more and more for Caitlin to become the person it is clear she
wishes to be. ASH covers each of its subjects with thick and
pungent layers through which to discover and discern the heroine's
personal journey, a labor-intensive struggle in some books, but ASH
is worth all the trouble --- it is a paean to friendship and to the
courage of moving forward, which rings particularly loudly in these
dark times.