Falling Wisteria

A Novel (Yellow Crocus, Book 5)

By: Laila Ibrahim

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

As America enters WWII, two women on the home front strive to stay strong in a heartfelt novel about hope, friendship, and family by the bestselling author of Yellow Crocus and Golden Poppies.

Kay Lynn Brooke is a wife and mother in Berkeley, California, building a solid future with her husband and family. Then on December 7, 1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor throws Kay Lynn’s life, and the lives of everyone she knows and loves, into chaos.

Within weeks, Kay Lynn’s dearest friend, Kimiko, is forcibly relocated with her family to an internment camp. Kay Lynn’s brother, fortified with a youthful and patriotic spirit, ships out for the Pacific. Her husband enlists ahead of the draft and leaves home for basic training, while Kay Lynn’s sister works for the war effort on the home front—and holds a secret that places her in a different kind of danger.

As Kay Lynn struggles to parent, keep the household together, and challenge the social mores of the time, she both finds and gives strength through her letters to Kimiko. Over the next few uncertain years, and longing for the safe and simple clarity of the past, Kay Lynn has no choice but to find her own place and purpose in a rapidly changing world.

©2024 by Laila Ibrahim. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Bahni Turpin's narration draws listeners into the fifth in Ibrahim's Yellow Crocus series. The audiobook opens with a birth and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. (Turpin gets five stars for realistic childbirth sounds.)… Turpin underplays the occasionally sentimental dialogue and high emotions, keeping the real drama from becoming melodrama. Her sensitive descriptions of returning soldiers, both physically and mentally wounded, are flawless, and her handling of episodes of unbridled xenophobia makes this shameful period in American history all too real. Worthwhile listening thanks to Turpin's assured and compassionate performance.” —AudioFile Magazine

“The impact of internment on the detainees is well narrated, and their friends’ feelings of sadness, loss, and guilt are aptly shown. The falling and reblooming of wisteria flowers are blended nicely into the story. Highly recommended.” —Historical Novels Review

Disappointed.

The book was just OK at best. The performance was very good. I would not recommend.

Bahri Turpin’s narration does it again

The continuing story through each generation of these families feels like an old friend. Looking forward to the next .

FAMILY TIES, CHANGING TIMES, FRIENDS FOREVER…

I really enjoyed this book — so much more than I enjoyed books three and four, which overall were good, but were far too political for me. One of the things I loved best about books One and Two was they focused primarily on family.

Yes, the political policies of the time were discussed, but the focus was primarily on how the newest political developments affected two families in particular.

Books Three and Four seemed to be more focused on political issues of the day and the focus on the family felt wedged in as “filler.”

This book discussed the political issues of the day and how deeply they affected two friends and their families in particular; however, discussion of the politics were more the background and was necessary to the understanding of the rest of the book.

This book focuses on a shameful period in American history — the unfair internment of Japanese citizens (many of them AMERICAN citizens) after the unexpected and devastating
bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese Army planes on December 7, 1941, triggering the beginning WWII.

Out of fear that American Japanese citizens might really be Japanese SPIES, on orders from the President, the Army began rounding up entire Japanese families and putting them in Interment camps without any evidence of such spying activities on the part of the American Japanese citizens.

In many cases, families were given only ONE HOUR to pack a suitcase for each household member. People did not know if they would be released in a few days, week, months or EVER. They had NO idea where they were going or what would happen to them once they got there.

People were told to include in each suitcase only necessary clothing, bedding, personal toiletries and toilet paper, a plate, cup and eating utinsels. This was a lot to all get into a suitcase they had to be able to lift and carry, but certainly not enough to adequately sustain them for an indefinite amount of time.

Family heirlooms and other treasures such as photo albums could not be taken unless there was room in their suitcase, and worst of all, family pets had to be left behind. Beloved family pets had to be abandoned or very quickly re-homed.

Prisoners from the Oakland, San Francisco and surroundings areas were brought to a no-longer used racing track and entire families were confined to horse stalls. These stalls were to be their “homes”until they were either relocated or released. Sanitation conditions QUICKLY declined in a space not designed to hold 6,000+ people.

While in the camp, families lost EVERYTHING — their homes, the contents inside the homes they were forced to abandon, any money they might have had in a bank account, their jobs, cars and their businesses. Families with extended family branches lost track of EACH OTHER even though they were in the same camp, due to there being 6,000+ people living in the same camp.

When they were finally released, what they are confronted with were hated and prejudice. These people were forbidden by law to rent or buy properties in certain areas of the State and in various parts of many towns. After being released from the camps, some of the Japanese American men even signed up to be soldiers in the American Army to fight against the Japanese enemy because it is the only way to secure stable employment and ensure SOME kind of regular income for their families.

“Falling Wisteria” focuses on Kay Lynn, her husband, Mitch, and their two children, Lizzie and Tim; Kimiko, her husband Kenji, and their three kids, Donna, George and baby Missy. The kids are SO close, the parents install a gate in their backyard fence so the kids can run back and forth between homes to play together whenever they want.

When released from the Internment camp after four years, Kimiko’s family found the rented home they always loved had been sold. They find themselves homeless on top of everything else. New homes AND new jobs were scarce due to the influx of all the released camp prisoners and other people flooding the area — people who were discovering the beauty of the as Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco. areas. There are now just too many people and not enough housing. What little housing is available is either far too expensive or there are restrictions in place allowing only white people to live there.

Now, Kimiko and her family find that although they have done nothing wrong, daily they are victims of prejudice. Her family no longer feels welcome in the only city they have ever lived in.

Kay Lynn and Kimiko remain friends, but there now always seems to be underlying tension, an awareness between them that had never been there before.

Kay Lynn’s brother, an AF pilot, is shot down and believed to be in a Japanese camp,. Kay Lynn is horrified to find that in the recesses of her mind, she’s angry at KIMIKO for being Japanese, even though Kimiko has absolutely nothing to do with the situation with her brother. At the same time, she feels utterly ashamed of what her government has done to Kamiko’s family and so many others just like Kimiko’s.

Both Kimiko and Kay Lynn feel separated from her friend and each is missing the closeness they once shared. They both feel the distance between them now and neither knew how to reach across the gap and go back to being the close friends they once were.

This story is about love, enduring friendship, trust, of finding a way of preserving what is worth keeping from the past while moving forward confidently into a new future.

I’m SO glad I bough this fifth book in the “Yellow Crocus” series. I highly recommend it to anyone. This book can easily be read and understood as a stand alone.

Once again, Laila Ibrahim and the fantastic Bahni Turpin, have teamed up to create another winner! I’m so sorry that this is the last in this series, but I suppose all good things must come to an end at some point, and this was a wonderful, touching wrap-up!

TEN STARS❣️❣️❣️

Nothing

Wish it focus more on the original families I love Katelynn story continued but I was expecting Dawn story from the freemans I hope the author will do a mini series on the freemans and everyone view and less political