BLAST, BLITZ, PROMOS, REVEALS, & TOURS . . . : SPOTLIGHT w/EXCERPT - HISTORICAL FICTION

Repentance
by Andrew Lam

Publication Date: May 1st 2019

Tiny Fox Press

Paperback & eBook; 308 Pages

BLURB
France, October 1944. A Japanese American war hero has a secret.

A secret so awful he'd rather die than tell anyone--one so entwined with the brave act that made him a hero that he's determined never to speak of the war. Ever.

Decades later his son, Daniel Tokunaga, a world-famous cardiac surgeon, is perplexed when the U.S. government comes calling, wanting to know about his father's service with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during WWII. Something terrible happened while his father was fighting the Germans in France, and the Department of Defense won't stop its investigation until it's determined exactly who did what.

Wanting answers of his own, Daniel upends his life to find out what his father did on a small, obscure hilltop half a world away. As his quest for the truth unravels his family's catastrophic past, the only thing for certain is that nothing--his life, career, and family--can ever be the same again.

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Praise for Repentance

“Suspenseful, touching, and beautifully written.” -Margaret George, New York Times best-selling author of Elizabeth I and Helen of Troy

“A gorgeous, emotional book. A story of honor and sacrifice. An important, and timely, American story.” -Karin Tanabe, author of The Diplomat’s Daughter and The Gilded Years

“An intimate, revealing story of family secrets, love and honor during a turbulent time in Japanese American history.” -Gail Tsukiyama, award-winning author of The Samurai’s Garden and The Street of a Thousand Blossoms

“Gripping, engrossing, and poignant. Repentance reveals the nature of combat and its affect on men long after the guns fall silent.” -Susumu Ito, 442nd RCT veteran and recipient of the Bronze Star and Congressional Gold Medal

EXCERPT
There he was!

Hiro was further uphill, running through the woods. Ray lifted his head to see better. A burst of bullets chomped at the trunk of his tree and he scrunched back down. He could still see the remaining machine guns, arrayed to their left and slightly uphill, their black barrels protruding from the brush the gunners had placed in front of rough log barricades.

There came a sudden explosion—the nest to Ray’s immediate left. Two bodies in grey uniforms seemed to do a ragdoll dance up and out of the brush. Tossed forward, they flew and flopped and landed without making much of a sound.

It had happened so quickly Ray hadn’t time to figure it out, but now he knew that Hiro had pitched in a grenade from behind. And there he was now in the midst of the twisted, melted machine gun, looking for survivors.

Ray joined the others in firing at the other two nests, whose machine guns now threw lead in jerky spasms, uncertain of what to hit.

To Ray’s surprise, Hiro now ran straight at the next gun emplacement. He sprinted, then stumbled on the uneven slope, grabbing at his belt for another grenade. The machine gun swiveled and was on to him. It stuttered maniacally. Little founts of flame spat from the barrel.

Hiro was there. Running. And then he wasn’t there. He was on the ground, in a disfigured heap.

“No!” Ray yelled.

Hiro didn’t move.

They killed him. Oh my God, they killed him.

Ray felt a hot wave of rage crash down on him.

Without thinking, he gripped his rifle and stood up straight. On his left and right, the other Nisei rose up too. A man on his left charged forward.

“Banzai!” he hollered.

And then a chorus of “Banzai!”

And Ray went, too, filled with unreasoning hatred. His only desire was to run his bayonet through the heart of the German who had killed his best friend. The Nazi gunners redirected fire at the oncoming attackers. The first man out groaned as he took a hit to the stomach and went down.

Ray felt splinters of bark sting his cheek as bullets struck all around him. He ran toward Hiro’s body, and then, Hiro moved!

His arm flew up.

He’s alive!

Hiro followed his arm’s roll and turned his body closer to the nearest nest. From only six or seven feet away, he tossed a grenade, and did a swift back roll downhill.

The gun emplacement seemed to implode and explode at the same time. Metal fragments, clumps of dirt went everywhere. A moment later Ray scrambled to the place where Hiro had stopped his acrobatics.

Hiro’s face was dotted with mud and oil spatters. He was smiling.

“I got ‘em?”

Ray shook his head in amazement. “You sure did.”

“Am I all right?” Hiro patted his body everywhere from head to toe.

“I tripped and fell down. Played dead—and figured I was dead when that burst came. But I wasn’t. He missed me by a mile.”

“You lucky son of a bitch!”

New grenade blasts. Rifle fire. They both looked up and watched their comrades assaulting the fourth and final machine gun.

Then, the guns went silent.

Ray sucked some air. It tasted of cordite and smelled of burnt flesh, oiled steel, and hot dirt.

Black and blue-grey smoke wafted downhill and away into the woods where it tangled in the pine trees. Ray looked up. For the first time in the Vosges, he could see a tiny patch of blue sky through a small gap in the trees.

Author Info
Andrew Lam, M.D., is the award-winning author of Repentance, Two Sons of China, and Saving Sight. His writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Born in Philadelphia and raised in central Illinois, he graduated summa cum laude in history from Yale University, where he studied military history and U.S.-East Asian relations. He then attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by specialty training to become a retinal surgeon. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and resides in western Massachusetts with his wife and four children. His newest book is Repentance, a historical novel and riveting family drama entwined with the history of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a group of Japanese American soldiers who fought valiantly in Europe during WWII while many of their families were incarcerated in camps like Manzanar at home. The 442nd became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history.

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