Shizuko's Daughter

Author: Kyoko Mori

Publisher: Fawcett (1994)

“Your mother would be very proud. . .” Yuki Okuda heard these words when she was achieving in school, excelling in sports, or displaying her art work. And she could always imagine the unexpressed thought that followed, “. . . if your mother hadn’t killed herself.”

But Shizuko Okuda did commit suicide, and Yuki had to learn how to live with a father who didn’t seem to love her and a stepmother who treated her badly. Most important, she had to learn how to live with herself: a twelve-year-old Japanese girl growing up alone, trying to make sense of a tragedy that made no sense at all . . .