Snow Falling on Cedars- FIRST PRINTING

In 1954 a fisherman is found dead in the nets of his boat, and a local Japanese-American man is charged with his murder. In the course of his trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than one man's guilt. For on San Piedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries - memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and a Japanese girl; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbours watched.

David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award, among others.  He is a contributing editor at Harper's magazine and lives on an island in Puget Sound.