The novel follows Nori Kamiza, the illegitimate daughter of a Japanese aristocrat and an African American soldier, who is raised in isolation in her grandparents' home in post-WWII Japan. As a child, Nori is taught to be silent, question nothing, and accept her solitary life in the attic. However, she forms a bond with her half-brother Akira, the first person to allow her to question her circumstances. This bond challenges her pre-determined life and Nori becomes determined to fight for her place in the world, despite her grandparents' efforts to conceal her lineage. The story explores Nori's journey from isolation to questioning social norms and fighting for acceptance in a changing post-war Japan

1.
[Laes] Mobi Fifty Words for Rain

3. From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel
about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.Kyoto,
Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. .
. . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko
"Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned
her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic
of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding
chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate
child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an
outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to
conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to
uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life
for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies
outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-
brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in
him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an
unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow
and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.

4. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for
her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might
cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a
dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what
it means to try to break free.

6.
[Laes] Mobi Fifty Words for Rain

8. From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel
about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.Kyoto,
Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. .
. . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko
"Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned
her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic
of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding
chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate
child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an
outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to
conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to
uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life
for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies
outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-
brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in
him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an
unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow
and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.

9. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for
her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might
cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a
dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what
it means to try to break free.

11.
[Laes] Mobi Fifty Words for Rain

13. From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel
about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.Kyoto,
Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. .
. . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko
"Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned
her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic
of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding
chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate
child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an
outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to
conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to
uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life
for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies
outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-
brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in
him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an
unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow
and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.

14. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for
her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might
cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a
dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what
it means to try to break free.

16.
[Laes] Mobi Fifty Words for Rain

18. From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel
about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.Kyoto,
Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. .
. . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko
"Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned
her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic
of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding
chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate
child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an
outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to
conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to
uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life
for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies
outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-
brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in
him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an
unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow
and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.

19. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for
her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might
cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a
dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what
it means to try to break free.

21.
[Laes] Mobi Fifty Words for Rain

23. From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel
about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.Kyoto,
Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. .
. . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko
"Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned
her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic
of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding
chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate
child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an
outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to
conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to
uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life
for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies
outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-
brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in
him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an
unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow
and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.

24. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for
her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might
cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a
dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what
it means to try to break free.

26.
[Laes] Mobi Fifty Words for Rain

28. From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel
about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.Kyoto,
Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. .
. . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko
"Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned
her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic
of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding
chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate
child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an
outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to
conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to
uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life
for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies
outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-
brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in
him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an
unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow
and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.

29. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for
her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might
cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a
dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what
it means to try to break free.

31.
[Laes] Mobi Fifty Words for Rain

33. From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel
about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.Kyoto,
Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. .
. . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko
"Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned
her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic
of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding
chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate
child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an
outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to
conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to
uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life
for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies
outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-
brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in
him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an
unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow
and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.

34. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for
her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might
cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a
dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what
it means to try to break free.

36.
[Laes] Mobi Fifty Words for Rain

38. From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel
about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.Kyoto,
Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. .
. . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko
"Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned
her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic
of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding
chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate
child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an
outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to
conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to
uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life
for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies
outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-
brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in
him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an
unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow
and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.

39. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for
her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might
cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a
dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what
it means to try to break free.

41.
[Laes] Mobi Fifty Words for Rain

43. From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel
about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.Kyoto,
Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. .
. . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko
"Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned
her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic
of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding
chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate
child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an
outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to
conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to
uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life
for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies
outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-
brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in
him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an
unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow
and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.

44. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for
her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might
cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a
dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what
it means to try to break free.

46.
[Laes] Mobi Fifty Words for Rain

48. From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel
about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.Kyoto,
Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. .
. . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko
"Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned
her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic
of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding
chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate
child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an
outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to
conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to
uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life
for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies
outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-
brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in
him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an
unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow
and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.

49. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for
her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might
cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a
dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what
it means to try to break free.

51.
[Laes] Mobi Fifty Words for Rain

53. From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel
about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.Kyoto,
Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. .
. . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko
"Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned
her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic
of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding
chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.The illegitimate
child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an
outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to
conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to
uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life
for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies
outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-
brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in
him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an
unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow
and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead.

54. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for
her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might
cost her everything.Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a
dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what
it means to try to break free.