Themes of Otsuka's Novels

Maureen Howard: I think her approach, I think her feeling about writing this book and the next book and the one that she’s working on has a lot to do with really trying to discover the idea of background. Yes, her background but also the idea of various American backgrounds. From whence do we come? What stories do we tell ourselves, which may not be true? Can we test them, or shall we fall for them? And I think it’s enormously important for writers or for storytellers to find out why they have chosen that material. Why do we want to go back there? Why do we want to reinvent a place, a time, in order to render it and to pass it on? It’s a gift to pass it on. Truly.