In the beautifully written, multi-layered novel Plum Wine, Angela Davis-Gardner portrays the love story between Seiji, a Japanese potter who endured the terrors brought about by the Hiroshima bombing, and Barbara Jefferson, a lonely young American teaching English at an all-girls Tokyo university. This tale is much more than a romance; the narrative combines elements of mystery, culture, history, literature, and poetry in one woman's life-altering journey through the recent past.

Plum Wine is set in Japan during the Vietnam War era. At the onset of the novel, Barbara receives a bequest from her fellow teacher and mentor, Michiko Nakamoto (Michi-San), a Hiroshima survivor who has died from unknown causes. Michi-San has left Barbara a tansu chest filled with bottles of homemade plum wine dated each year from 1939 to the present year, 1966. Wrapped around each bottle are sheets of rice paper covered in calligraphy that reveal portions of Michi-San’s and her mother’s lives. As Barbara journeys through two worlds, two time periods, and two women’s lives in order to understand the texts, which she cannot translate herself, her passage unfolds a story of shame and secrets, of trust and betrayal, and the clash of civilizations.

This incredibly powerful novel was a Book Sense Pick in hardcover and is the first of four books by Angela Davis-Gardner to be published by The Dial Press. The questions that follow are intended to enhance your reading of Plum Wine.