Fifty Words for Rain

This is Nori’s story—she didn’t know love until her older brother Akira appeared in her life.

Now Nori has a real family—true, kind, loving—and ahead of her is an entire world.

Don’t ask questions. Don’t argue. Don’t resist.

Rain always ends.

Kyoto, Japan, 1948. Little Nori is safely hidden from prying eyes. For many years she lives in the house of a willful grandmother, who sees only an illegitimate heiress in her.

Nori doesn’t know love. She endures the whitening baths that burn her skin. She has no choice, because she must match the Kamidza imperial family. But one day, her stepbrother Akira appears on the doorstep.

Talented and handsome, Akira sees not a shameful blot, but a frightened girl. To separate them, her grandmother and grandfather are ready for anything—even to sell Nori to a house of geishas.

The girl who is supposed to stay silent will learn to speak. Even when the price of freedom is pain, the light inside Nori doesn’t go out—it grows stronger, lighting everything around her.