Okinawa, present day: Luz, a teenage military brat, has moved to the island's U.
S. Air Force base with her mother, a no-nonsense sergeant. Luz's mother hopes th
at the move will reconnect them with the Okinawan branch of their family--and he
lp them heal from the death of Luz's beloved older sister.
This is an island w
here departed spirits mingle with the living, and interwoven with Luz's narrativ
e is the story of an Okinawan girl, Tamiko Kokuba, who in 1945 was plucked from
her high school and trained to work in the Imperial Army's horrific cave hospita
ls. Both of these extraordinary young women are seeking peace, and as Luz digs d
eeper and deeper into her past, their quests will intersect. "Above the East Chi
na Sea "tells the entwined stories of two lives connected across time by the sha
red experience of loss, the strength of an ancient culture, and the power of fam
ily love.
