The book of Kane and Margaret : a novel
(Book)

"More like a tapestry than a traditional novel, The Book of Kane and Margaret by Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi blends magical elements with stories based on the oral narratives of the author's grandparents and their experiences during the 1940s at the Tulare Assembly Center and the Gila River War Relocation Center, two WWII relocation camps in Arizona. The author's technique gives the novel the effect of working through accretion, collecting one-breath fictions and conversations with recurring names, voices, and themes that explore a carceral setting"--,Provided by publisher.

Kane Araki and Margaret Morri are not only the names of teenage lovers living in a World War II Japanese relocation camp. Kane Araki is also the name of a man who, mysteriously, sprouts a pair of black raven's wings overnight. Margaret Morri is the name of the aging healer who treats embarrassing conditions (smelly feet and excessive flatulence). It's also the name of an eleven-year-old girl who communes with the devil, trading human teeth for divine wishes. In The Book of Kane and Margaret, dozens of Kane Arakis and Margaret Morris populate the Canal and Butte camp divisions in Gila River. Amidst their daily rituals and family dramas, they find ways to stage quiet revolutions against a domestic colonial experience. Some internees slip through barbed wire fences to meet for love affairs. Others attempt to smuggle whiskey, pornography, birds, dogs, horses, and unearthly insects into their family barracks. And another seeks a way to submerge the internment camp in Pacific seawater. -- from Amazon.