Once upon a time a young Southern lady named Sophie fell in love with a handsome hometown fellow named Henry. He went off to war and never came back. The young woman waited for nearly 30 years, resigned to a lonely existence. 

Mr. Oto, a first generation American born in California to a father so proud he named his son Grover Cleveland Oto, is a fiercely private and honorable gentleman. His past is, respectfully, not open to discussion. Two years before the outbreak of World War II, Mr. Oto is delivered to a small Southern town by bus from New York City, where he was robbed of funds entrusted to him for his aunt's safe passage, and thereby fell from his family's grace. He arrives in Salty Creek, Georgia, weak from hunger and bruised from the beating he took on the streets of New York.

The kind townspeople help restore him to health and a place is found for him as gardener for Miss Anne, a proper yet sensitive southern lady. The small village regards him as they would any servant, possibly with a touch more mistrust since he's a "Chinaman," a misconception he does not correct. But humble Mr. Oto just goes about his life's business, tending Miss Anne's flowers and silently watching Sophie, the lady who has captured his heart.

Now a middle-aged spinster, Sophie, much to her surprise and his, finds herself sharing a deep, abiding love with this quiet and unassuming man. In wartime American South, this is an invitation for scorn, at best; but with the addition of the unprovoked attack by Mr. Oto's ancestors, his life is put in terrible jeopardy. Again, Miss Anne comes to his rescue and finds a place for him to hide until a better solution is hit upon. Sophie is miserable, once more having lost a love to war. She has tiptoed softly into an emotional bond with Mr. Oto and now he is preparing to leave.

Gentle in tone, SOPHIE AND THE RISING SUN is like its own haiku. Augusta Trobaugh has a melodic voice, which she lends to Mr. Oto, making his manner at once dulcet and mesmerizing. She walks the reader through a well-tended garden of words and images, portraying a pure love grown out of the seeds of innocence.

This is a book of basic pleasures, like the simple pleasure of another's company, sitting in silence together, breathing in the aroma wafting from the other's hair. Or listening to the night sounds with that special someone, in the dark, chastely enjoying the sensations through focused ears. Or savoring the unexpected tingle of electricity the first touch of that person's hand brings to one's shoulder. This book is a simple pleasure to read. You can lose yourself in its romance, while you learn its lesson presented in flowing, poetic phrases.

With the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, everything changed. Americans of Japanese descent bore the unreasonable anger of a scared and wounded nation. SOPHIE AND THE RISING SUN is the story of one such citizen and his forbidden love for a white woman. Their story is a tragic and wonderful one. It will delight your heart and soothe your psyche, welcome distractions in our own uncertain times.