Fifty Words for Rain

Asha Lemmie is the New York Times bestselling author of Fifty Words For Rain and The Wildest Sun. She holds a BA in English Literature from Boston College and is currently a graduate student at Columbia University. She resides in New York City but can frequently be found wandering. Asha writes historical fiction that focuses on bringing unique perspectives to life.

A Good Morning America Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller!
 
From debut author Asha Lemmie, a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together. Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale

Kyoto, Japan, 1948. Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist.

Such is eight-year-old Noriko Nori Kamiza s first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin.

The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it a battle that just might cost her everything.

Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free.

OUTSTANDING HARDCOVER PERFORMANCE: The HC for Fifty Words for Rain debuted as a GMA book club pick and hit the NYT hardcover and combined bestseller lists. It was also selected for the Literati book club by Malala Yousafzai and won the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Best First Novel Award.RAVE REVIEWS: The reviews and blurbs for Rain have been fantastic, including a rave from The New York Times Book Review. The book also already has hundreds of ratings on Amazon with 86% 4/5 stars.DIVERSE MAIN CHARACTER: This is a provocative and relatable narrative with a biracial main character that is sure to inspire discussion about race issues and cultural heritage.YOUNG NEW TALENT: Asha Lemmie has been writing and promoting full time.UNIQUE WORLD WAR II HOOK: Historical fiction focused on World War II continues to draw readers, but most of these novels are situated in Europe. Rain is a fresh take, bringing us to post-WWII Japan, not only shifting the location, but also the timeframe, looking at the reverberating effects of the war.