Thalia Book Club: Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the Attic

The 2011 National Book Award-nominated author of When the Emperor Was Divine discusses her spellbinding new novel, about a group of Japanese picture brides who come to America in the early 1900s, with the performer and essayist David Rakoff (Fraud, Half Empty).

The book traces the women's lives from their boat journey on which they imagine their husbands and concludes with their "disappearance" in World War II. Like Otsuka's first book, The Buddha in the Attic is about identity and what it means to be "other" in uncertain times. An excerpt will be performed by Rita Wolf.