A review by serendipitysbooks
Inheritors by Asako Serizawa

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 Inheritors is a collection of interconnected short stories that form a sort of mosaic where the whole is infinitely greater than the sum of the parts. It traces the history of five generations of a family over 150 years, in Japan, China and the United States, from the nineteenth century into the future. The book explores the lasting impact of World War II, the way war affects people’s humanity and the concept of intergenerational trauma but the stories unfold non-sequentially. There is a family tree at the beginning which includes dates for each story. If I was reading again I think I’d use these to make myself a little timeline as I went, so I could keep the events, people and connections straight. I liked that there was a range of different styles in the stories. Willow Run, which featured one side of an interview with a clear agenda, was especially effective. The stories featured elements of the Japanese war effort that I hadn’t known, particularly Train to Harbin which focused on biological experiments on Chinese prisoners of war. I love when my fiction reading teaches me things, even if they are things I wish I didn’t need to know. In many ways this was a challenging read which features plenty of trigger warnings but it was undoubtedly a worthwhile one. 
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