?A heartbreakingly resonant debut The Turtle House is a tender big-hearted story about women
family and the complicated history of Texas. These characters and their tentative flawed
stumblings toward grace will stay with me.??Elizabeth Wetmore author of Valentine ?Sweeping
yet intimate Amanda Churchill's Turtle House spans cultures and continents. Minnie and her
granddaughter Lia are unforgettable protagonists whose grit and grace will inspire you.
Together they find a way through in this gripping debut.??Vanessa Hua author of Forbidden
City Moving between late 1990s small-town Texas to pre-World War II Japan and occupied Tokyo
an emotionally engaging literary debut about a grandmother and granddaughter who connect over a
beloved lost place and the secrets they both carry. It's spring 1999 and 25-year-old Lia Cope
and her prickly 73-year-old grandmother Mineko are sharing a bedroom in Curtain Texas the
ranching town where Lia grew up and Mineko began her life as a Japanese war bride. Both women
are at a turning point: Mineko long widowed moved in with her son and daughter-in-law after a
suspicious fire destroyed the Cope family ranch house while Lia an architect with a promising
career in Austin has unexpectedly returned under circumstances she refuses to explain. Though
Lia never felt especially close to her grandmother the two grow close sharing late-night
conversations. Mineko tells stories of her early life in Japan of the war that changed
everything and of her two great loves: a man named Akio Sato and an abandoned Japanese country
estate they called the Turtle House where their relationship took root. As Mineko reveals more
of her early life?tales of innocent swimming lessons that blossom into something more a
friendship nurtured across oceans totems saved and hidden the heartbreak of love lost too
soon?Lia comes to understand the depth of her grandmother's pain and sacrifice and sees her
Texas family in a new light. She also recognizes that it's she who needs to come clean?about
the budding career she abandoned and the mysterious man who keeps calling. When Mineko's adult
children decide against her wishes to move her into an assisted living community she and Lia
devise a plan to bring a beloved lost place to life one that they hope will offer the safety
and sense of belonging they both need no matter the cost. A story of intergenerational
friendship family coming of age identity and love The Turtle House illuminates the hidden
lives we lead the secrets we hold close and what it truly means to find home again when it
feels lost forever.
