Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - At the Foot of the Cherry Tree

At the Foot of the Cherry Blossom Tree is a complex, multi-layered story - not surprising, given it is based on the very true story of debut author Alli Parker's grandparents, Gordon and Cherry Parker (aka Nobuko Sakuramoto).

Cherry was the first Japanese war bride allowed entry into Australia. Her arrival in the country was the first crack in the facade of the racist White Australia policy, which was shamefully not fully abolished until 1975.

It is because this is a true story - albeit a fictionalised version - that I feel uncomfortable awarding this a star rating for now. I may do so at a later date. I need to stress that this is not a reflection on the quality of the writing, which is generally excellent.

To me, this was a novel of two halves. Moving at a gentle, even-handed pace, and with great delicacy and sensitivity, the first half takes us from Melbourne's rural outer suburbs to the war-ravaged city of Kure in Japan (

with a flashback to Cherry's experience of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb

).

This for me was the strongest half of the novel, as the sense of place felt so vivid and visceral. You really felt the fear and resentment that many Japanese people had towards the men they called "the ex-enemy", as well as the Australian soldiers' xenophobic, distrustful attitudes towards the Japanese. I also found the idea of the described anti-fraternisation policy to be absurd, and the way it was enforced was dehumanising and barbaric. I should add that there were characters who were more moderate in their views, and not all the Australian soldiers were racist monsters. Life isn't black and white like that.

It is against this troubled backdrop that Parker depicts the romance blossoming (pun fully intended) between Gordon and Cherry, and from my perspective, this was developed believably and realistically - not a whiff of insta-love here.

The second half of the novel details the extraordinary efforts Gordon (and, later, his Australian family) went to in order to

bring his now-wife Cherry - as well as their growing family - to his home country in the face of the horrific White Australia policy

. While Alli Parker vividly describes

Gordon's frustration and despair in the face of immovable authority, and Cherry's increasingly desperate situation in Japan,

I did feel the pacing in the second half to be a tad more rushed. It felt compressed somehow, as if it were not given the same space to breathe as it had in the first half. And there was some odd phrasing. But this may have reflected my own reading experience, as I took more time to read the first half, whereas I read the second half relatively quickly.

This novel originally began life as a screenplay (Alli Parker is an accomplished screenwriter and has written for many acclaimed Australian TV programs), so that may be the reason for its structural issues. This is Parker's fiction debut, so I have no doubt her writing in this format will improve with future works.

As a side note, this book's release coincided with the release of the film Oppenheimer. Parker described it in an interview as kind of an anti-Oppenheimer, given that while the latter shows the making of the nuclear bomb, the former shows the emotional and physical impact that bomb had. That sentiment really resonated with what I was thinking in my reading of this.

This novel had its problems but ultimately it was a moving and impactful work, with themes that are all too relevant in today's world.

Content Warnings

raddles's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

chippyreads's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I wasn't expecting this book to make me cry so much!!

Gordon and Cherry's story is such an important part of Australia's history and highlights how racist we we're (still are) towards non white people. The White Australia Policy is arguably still in place and anyone reading this book will draw parallels to how Australia treats asylum seekers.

This book doesn't shy away from the horrors of war and what it does to a country. I felt honoured to be able to read about Cherry's experience in Hiroshima and how that effected her post war.

Beautifully written in a way that I wasn't able to out it down.

Anyone looking for a powerful historical/romance should check this one out.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins AU for a eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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