"Nobody chooses to be a refugee." That is the last line of the afterword of Mariko Nagai's verse novel, Under the Broken Sky. In a few quick paragraphs, Nagai reminds us that although her story is set in the 1940s, the story of war and the destruction it brings are forever around us. Vietnamese refugees, Syrians, Rohingyas, Rwandans ... these are just some of the displaced groups she mentions at the end of her heart-wrenching tale.Natsu lives with her father, whom she calls Tochan, and her sister Asa in Manchuria. When her father is conscripted by the Japanese army, Auntie next door comes and takes control of her life. At first, I thought that this would be a predictable story about a wicked woman pushing children to work for her, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. As circumstances move from bad to worse, Auntie does everything for the two children, determined to keep them … [Read more...]