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Suzanne Kamata

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Cinnamon Beach -- Coming in July 2024!

"Suzanne Kamata has masterfully captured the emotional nuances of love, loss and family secrets. Cinnamon Beach is as rich as it is deep. I loved it." -- Emma Grey, author of The Last Love Note

 

 

Candy Cane Cookie Crush

Divorced American mom Lauren Murata has stumbled into a university job teaching Home Economics at a conservative Japanese women's college with a dwindling student population. Although she has achieved success as a "domestic goddess," she is actually a scholar of gender studies. She meets widower dad Kazu Mori at her daughter's international school holiday bake sale. Mori manages talent, including a famous pop star who has just broken away from a popular all-male J-pop group. They discover that their children are good friends. The couple – and their kids – start going on playdates to iconic sites around Tokyo. They visit the pandas in Ueno Zoo. They go ice skating at Tokyo SkyTree. As their attraction to each other grows, they both try to figure out how to get out of the "friend zone" and move from playdates into real dates. But when a hashtag about Kazu's famous client goes viral, putting both and Kazu's and Lauren's careers at risk, their relationship begins to crumble.
 
"A must read romance." -- InD'tale Magazine
Order THE BASEBALL WIDOW from Amazon.

Official July 2022 International Pick of the International Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club!

Order The Baseball Widow by Suzanne Kamata.
Order THE BASEBALL WIDOW from Amazon.

Suzanne Kamata's The Baseball Widow embeds her readers in the thorny lives of Japanese high school baseball coaches and bicultural families with even-handed compassion  and insight. Kamata is a dazzling, deeply empathetic writer. – Kevin Chong, author of The Plague

 

"Through a diverse group of characters brought together by Japan's passion for baseball, Kamata explores identity, the loss of idealism, and the ragged beauties to be found in that loss." – Annabel Lyon, author of the Women's Prize longlisted novel Consent

 

"All of the major characters in The Baseball Widow are outside the mainstream, somehow different in a culture that has strong rules about fitting in. The author nails in particular the experience of Christine, an American married to a Japanese man. She is forced to accept that work will always come first for her husband, that she will be practically alone in raising her children, that for him to take time off for family is seen as a weakness. When Hideki, her husband, tells her that his high school baseball team is his family we feel the sword pierce her heart. And yet moving home to what should be a familiar culture is not as simple as it seems. The novel is a moving portrayal of what it is like to be adrift between cultures." — Louise Heal Kawai, translator of Ms. Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami 

 

"The Baseball Widow will have you turning pages to the point that the people around you will experience "book widow"-like symptoms! Through rich, complex characters and wildly unique yet realistic circumstances, Suzanne Kamata successfully introduces readers to a version of Japan unlike any they may have previously heard about. If Koshien is a must-see ballpark (and it is), then The Baseball Widow is a must-read novel!

Trevor Raichura, Hanshin Tigers English News

 

"Suzanne Kamata hits a homer. Well-worth perusing, The Baseball Widow is disturbing and engaging in its exploration of themes of being a stranger in a strange land then not being able to go hone again. The writing is crisp and the many chapters from the points of view of the Japanese characters are on the money all the way through to the duty-bound end." – Eric Madeen, author of Water Drumming in the Soul: A Novel of Racy Love in the Heart of Africa and Asian Trail Mix: True Tales from Borneo to Japan

 

 

 "Suzanne Kamata has penned yet another compelling page-turner about life and love in Japan, telling it like it is, with details and background I can vouch for as a fellow ex-pat." – Wendy Jones Nakanishi, a.k.a. Lea O'Harra, author of Lady First (An Inspector Inoue Mystery)

My first book of poetry.
 
'Suzanne Kamata's many fans know she writes wonderful fiction, but with Waiting we learn she's a poet too. Every poem in this small, beautiful book is a spare, lyrical gem. Together, they tell a haunting page-turner of a story about a town and a family grappling with loss and holding tight to hope. Each character in Waiting is fully dimensional and real, yet built from so few words I kept asking myself, "How did she do that?" I don't know, but I'm very grateful she did.' - Ona Gritz, author of Geode
 
"Seamlessly braiding true crime story and coming-of-age narrative, Kamata captures-with compassion-those long moments of longing for the next steps into sex, university life, and freedom. In this town, however, those tentative yearnings are overshadowed by the news of a missing classmate, also on the cusp of a long-anticipated adulthood; but will she ever get to experience it? In this timely novella-in-verse, Kamata adeptly uses the empty, mysterious spaces inherent in her poems to embody the uncertainty and ache of a universal moment of waiting-for the end of high school and the beginning of everything else." - Jessica Goodfellow, author of Whiteout
 
"A teenage girl, her family, and an entire town wait for news. In these deceptively quiet, spare lines, something feels ready to spring. One teenage girl faces decisions about her future, while her missing classmate may not have one. The fierce nature of love is one of many truths that come to light in this gripping poetic narrative. Waiting is rich with suspense and depth, right to its poignant last words." - Tanja Bartel, author of Everyone at This Party
Buy POP FLIES, ROBO-PETS AND OTHER DISASTERS from an indie bookstore near you!
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Buy POP FLIES, ROBO~PETS AND OTHER DISASTERS from Amazon.
Thirteen-year-old Satoshi Matsumoto spent the last three years living in Atlanta where he was the star of his middle-school baseball team, —a slugger with pro potential, according to his coach. Now that his father's work in the US has come to an end, he's moved back to his hometown in rural Japan. Living abroad has changed him, and now his old friends in Japan are suspicious of his new foreign ways. Even worse, his childhood foe Shintaro, whose dad has ties to gangsters, is in his homeroom. After he joins his new school's baseball team, Satoshi has a chance to be a hero until he makes a major-league error.

"A heart-warming story about a baseball player who learns that teamwork is much more important than being the star of the team. I loved the family dynamics and depiction of life, and especially baseball, in Japan."—Shauna Holyoak, author of Kazu Jones and the Denver Dognappers (Hyperion, 2019)
 
"A story set in Japan rich in details only Kamata, an insider, could share. With ease and respect, she weaves the pressures, agonies, and loyalties of Satoshi's life at home, at school and on a junior high baseball team with the practices and traditions of the game played in Japan. I am a big fan of this middle-grade homerun!"—Annie Donwerth Chikamatsu, award-winning author of Somewhere Among (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2017)
 
"Pop Flies really pops! A lively, fun, easy read that draws you in and keeps you guessing."—Dori Jones Yang, award-winning author of The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball (SparkPress, 2017)
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Squeaky Wheels: Travels with my Daughter by Train, Plane, Metro, Tu-tuk and Wheelchair

Squeaky Wheels is a beautiful record of a mother's journey with her wheelchair-using daughter around the world. You'll love travelling with Suzanne and Lilia in Japan, America, France and beyond, exploring art, culture, food and life. More than a travelogue, however, it's a moving odyssey of a mother's determination to give her daughter room to dream, create, and be herself without barriers of any kind. With honesty, humour, insight and courage, Squeaky Wheels shows us that the best part of travel is always coming home to ourselves.

--Leza Lowitz, Author of In Search of the Sun: One Woman's Quest to Find Family in Japan

Thanks to Suzanne Kamata for taking me on this journey to Paris and beyond. Her story of traveling with Lilia was thoroughly engaging, with much to say about what it means to parent fearlessly. Life presents obstacles, but you don't know which can be overcome without taking risks, and the fine balance between toughing it out and learning to accept help can't be learned until you're out there, pushing the limits. Bravo to Suzanne and Lilia - it was a pleasure spending time with you.


-- Jane Bernstein, Author of Rachel in the World: A Memoir

order Indigo Girl from Amazon
Fifteen-year-old Aiko Cassidy, a bicultural girl with cerebral palsy, grew up in Michigan with her single mother. For as long as she could remember, it was just the two of them. When a new stepfather and a baby half sister enter her life, she finds herself on the margins. Having recently come into contact with her biological father, she is invited to spend the summer with his indigo-growing family in a small Japanese farming village. Aiko thinks she just might fit in better in Japan. If nothing else, she figures the trip will inspire her manga story, Gadget Girl.
However, Aiko’s stay in Japan is not quite the easygoing vacation that she expected. Her grandmother is openly hostile toward her, and she soon learns of painful family secrets that have been buried for years. Even so, she takes pleasure in meeting new friends. She is drawn to Taiga, the figure skater who shows her the power of persistence against self-doubt. Sora is a fellow manga enthusiast who introduces Aiko to a wide circle of like-minded artists. And then there is Kotaro, a refugee from the recent devastating earthquake in northeastern Japan.
As she gets to know her biological father and the story of his break with her mother, Aiko begins to rethink the meaning of family and her own place in the world.

Winner of a Silver IPPY Award!

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"A lyrical, compelling coming-of-age story with magical elements." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Suzanne Kamata has written a novel of great charm and depth, with a bit of magical realism laced with humor. Elise, its engaging narrator opens her arms and her heart to life's complexity, including family secrets and escapades with a magnificent new bestie--the irrepressible Chiara. When an unlikely romance unfolds with a mysterious drifter/musician, Kamata steers us expertly into darker waters. A jewel of a novel, set on the shores of Lake Michigan with Kamata's signature compassion for all of its characters." -- Margaret Willey, folklorist, and author of A Summer of Silk Moths and Beetle Boy

"Suzanne Kamata's new novel, The Mermaids of Lake Michigan, is a beautiful story about a teenage girl who must learn to balance her idealism and belief in mermaids with the harsh realities of growing up and trying to find people to love and trust. A page-turner set in the unstable years of the 1970s, I devoured it in one sitting. It brought back memories of my own adolescence and took me beyond, in that way all good novels do, into the wonderings of circumstance and the choices we would make if faced with hard decisions. Suitable for teens and adults alike, this novel will teach readers to believe in magic even in the face of tragedy." -- Cassie Premo Steele, Author of Beautiful Waters

"A luminous coming-of-age story about a teen struggling against social norms and her own family legacy to find her way. Elise's journey is hardly the stuff of fairy tales, as she ends up far from home, and far from the self she meant to be. Raw, real and even a bit magical." -- Kristina Riggle, Author of Vivian in Red and The Life You've Imagined

"Elise Faulkner drew me into her head and heart so subtly, yet with such force , that by the end I was cheering her on. Suzanne Kamata has woven an aching coming-of-age story that will speak to women everywhere." -- Kristin Bair O'Keefe, Author of The Art of Floating and Thirsty

"In this intricately woven coming-of-age tale, Kamata explores destiny and regret...with tantalizing glimpses of a scandalous shipwreck-diving great grandmother." -- Publisher's Weekly

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