Snow Falling on Cedars

It's a great story, but the primary pleasure of the book is Guterson's renderings of the people and the place. Set on an island in the straits north of Puget Sound, in Washington, where everyone is either a fisherman or a berry farmer, the story is nominally about a murder trial. But since it's set in the 1950s, lingering memories of World War II, internment camps and racism helps fuel suspicion of a Japanese-American fisherman, a lifelong resident of the islands. This is the kind of book where you can smell and hear and see the fictional world the writer has created, so palpably does the atmosphere come through.

TJYoungRead said I loved this book. It will go into my "Best Books I've Read List". I loved this book. It will go into my "Best Books I've Read List". I'm not going to go into the story line, enough of the other reviews tell the story, but this is one of those books that you just sit back and let it take you away. The descriptions of the area, the people, the way he describes the backgro. An island's soul on trial along with a Japanese fisherman. Perry The opening scene in riveting: a small-town courtroom on an island in the upper end of Puget Sound on a snowy day. Having lived in Seattle for a few years, I can really say that his description of the residents of the island, and the geography itself (sounds like Whidbey Island to me) is excellent. Guters. Karin said This is one of my all time favourite novels, rife with beautiful writing. This is one of my all time favourite novels, rife with beautiful writing, rich characters, excellent description, thoughtful, poignant, at times nostalgic, at times hopefull, but Amazon's words are so lacking here It is one of those hard to describe types of novels that defies a simple categorization, and

On San Piedro, an island of rugged, spectacular beauty in Puget Sound, a Japanese-American fisherman stands trial for murder. Set in 1954 in the shadow of World War II, Snow Falling on Cedars is a beautifully crafted courtroom drama, love story, and war novel, illuminating the psychology of a community, the ambiguities of justice, the racism that persists even between neighbors, and the necessity of individual moral action despite the indifference of nature and circumstance.