The Good Daughter

Growing up, Kumi Taguchi thought her father was merely distant: reserved, obsessively frugal and – after her parents’ divorce – almost entirely missing. When he died, Kumi’s feelings about him and the Japanese heritage he had given her remained tangled.

But just because a parent has gone doesn’t mean they’re absent. Over time Kumi came to understand more about what made her father as he was, including his experiences as a child in wartime Japan and, above all, the culture she both loved and felt burdened by. She decided to travel to Japan to find the family home, and perhaps lay to rest some ghosts.

In this highly evocative journey of understanding, Kumi explores her divided self: the tension between duty and freedom; the people she’s felt drawn to and lost; and how to find your place when caught between two worlds.