The story of H A novel

Marina Perezagua

eAudio - 2018

August 6, 1945: the day Enola Gay unleashed an atomic inferno over Hiroshima. In the wake of its devastation, two stories unfold. There's Jim, an American soldier who was entrusted with taking care of Yoro, a Japanese girl who then disappears after the atomic bomb falls. And there's H, a Japanese child who is at school when the bomb drops and is indelibly marked by its destruction. Both victims of the bomb, H and Jim meet for the first time in New York years later-their paths cross by chance, they fall in love, and together they continue Jim's search for Yoro. A quixotic twenty-first century quest to discover what makes us human, from refugee camps to the slave mines of Africa, from Brazil to Borneo, Japan to Mexico, it'...s also a journey that plumbs the depths and heights of cruelty and compassion, vulnerability and violence. Marina Perezagua's urgent, incantatory, and highly original novel moves us beyond our understanding of history as broad and sweeping to the individual stories of those who feel joy and pain, who suffer and transcend. Both dazzling and dark, The Story of H pulsates with a terrible beauty and power that lingers with the reader long after the last page.

Saved in:
Subjects
Genres
Historical fiction
Published
[United States] : HarperAudio 2018.
Language
English
Corporate Author
hoopla digital
Main Author
Marina Perezagua (author)
Corporate Author
hoopla digital (-)
Other Authors
Valerie Miles, 1963- (translator), Shiromi Arserio (narrator)
Edition
Unabridged
Online Access
Instantly available on hoopla.
Cover image
Physical Description
1 online resource (1 audio file (10hr., 46 min.)) : digital
Format
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
ISBN
9780062859228
Access
AVAILABLE FOR USE ONLY BY IOWA CITY AND RESIDENTS OF THE CONTRACTING GOVERNMENTS OF JOHNSON COUNTY, UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, HILLS, AND LONE TREE (IA).
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

H is born intersex in Hiroshima, then her life is forever changed on August 6, 1945, when the atomic bomb unleashes unparalleled devastation. H is left severely burned, which enables her to choose her gender identity when her male genitalia are removed during reconstructive surgery. Years later, H falls in love with Jim, an American soldier who was a foster parent for a Japanese baby for five years until the child was suddenly taken away and given to another family. H, unable to have a child of her own, joins Jim in his quest to find the adopted daughter, Yoro. Rich with symbolism and recurring motifs, the story folds in on itself like origami. We learn that H has committed a crime, followed by her confession, and that she has been both victim and witness to acts of state-sponsored violence, yet is able to find hope amid the wreckage. Although the letter H is often silent, this thought-provoking novel charting the aching distance between the heart and tongue gives voice to the mutability and resilience of the human spirit.--Bill Kelly Copyright 2018 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Spanish author Perezagua's audacious novel, the first of her works to be translated into English, epistolizes an intersex woman's quest to find her sanity, her sex, and a family to replace the one incinerated by the Americans at Hiroshima. H, a child whose parents chose to see her as a boy even though she identified as a girl, survived Little Boy, the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan. After being adopted by a family in America, she tells of meeting Jim, a veteran searching for Yoro, a girl delivered into his care in the aftermath of the war. Together they travel the world, hunting for the child. When Jim dies, H becomes involved with a professor she calls Irrational Number, but she is so psychologically damaged that their relationship soon ends in a surprising, abrupt manner. She continues the search for Yoro, so bound to the idea of her that she narrates as if pregnant with the girl, though she knows she is not. Following a lead years after she first began searching for Yoro, H travels to Africa, where she divulges a startling confession and is involved in a violent crime. Inventive if often didactic, this ambitious book plunges with courage into the moral morass of a horrific period in history. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

An intersex woman joins an American ex-soldier in a search for his adopted daughter.Perezagua's new novel, her first to appear in English, is so strange it's difficult to begin with a summary. Let's say that it's a blend of fiction and essay, and though it doesn't really qualify as magical realism, it certainly isn't just realism either. The book is narrated by H, an intersex woman who'd been a schoolboy in Hiroshima when the bomb fell. Along with everything else, she left her old identity behind. Now she's with Jim, an American ex-soldier formerly stationed in Hiroshima. Jim is desperately searching for Yoro, the Japanese daughter he adopted after the war. Yoro disappeared on him, or was taken from him; in any case, H joins him in his search. H narrates their story in a circular, roundabout way, full of repetitions and asidesthough it isn't always clear where the asides end and the main story begins. Early on, H admits to a murder of some sort, circumstances unclear. She directs her story to an otherwise unnamed "sir," an authority apparently in hot pursuit. It wouldn't be fair to say that none of this is realisticit isn't meant to be realistic. But it isn't believable, either, not even in its own weird world. H's digressions become tiresome. Her sometimes-sanctimonious tone does, too. The novel apparently grew out of a short story. One gets the impression it would have been more successful shrunk down to its original size.With a narrative style that quickly grows tiresome, this experimental novel never quite reaches emotional depth. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.