San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with murder. In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than one man's guilt. For on San Piedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries - memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo's wife; memories of land desired, paid for and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile whole its neighbors watched. Gripping, tragic and densely atmospheric, Snow Falling on Cedars is a masterpiece of suspense - but one that leaves us shaken and changed.
This book is a very interesting and suspenseful murder mystery. A combination of past and present twist and turn until you honestly don't know if the suspect did it or not. The story is a good one involving forbidden love, interracial prejudices, war and the aftereffects of war. It made me read up to the last page because the story truly isn't finished, the mystery truly isn't solved until the last page.
The only thing that disturbed me was the fact that the author thought it necessary to include sex scenes between main characters and even refer to some amongst the minor characters. Alot of it wasn't necessary and I found myself skipping ahead to the more important paragraphs. Unfortunately this affected how I felt about the book as a whole. So even though there were some really good parts and even some quote able lines, my rating of this book is pulled down quite a bit.
4 out of 10
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