Etsuko

Etsuko is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. Although she is the point-of-view character for the book, she is actually portrayed as generally passive. She is an observer of, and occasional commenter on, the other characters’ actions, but she rarely takes an active role in trying to change the other characters actions or opinions. She is a Japanese woman who lived for part of her life in Nagasaki. Fortunately, she was unharmed by the atomic bomb blast that devastated Nagasaki. Much of the novel concerns Etsuko’s friendship with Sachiko, a widowed single mother who moved into a cottage near Etsuko’s home in Nagasaki one summer.

Etsuko is pregnant with her first child during the Japan storyline. After Etsuko gave birth to her first child, she and her husband left Japan and immigrated to England. Etsuko then had a second child by a second husband, an...