Book summary

In the 1940s, a young Japanese woman--a pearl diver--is discovered to have leprosy and becomes an outcast, even though her case is extraordinarily mild, and is sent to the leper colony Nagashima. Because she is in good health, she becomes an assistant to the doctors there, spending the rest of her life as an exile, but a highly observant one.

Media reviews

"Drawing from actual medical history, Talarigo succeeds in telling a compelling story whose strength is its elegant simplicity."