In this haunting novel, John Ball returns to the setting he evoked so beautifully in his earlier success, Miss One Thousand Spring Blossoms. Set against the exquisite landscape of rural Japan, The Winds of Mitamura weaves an engrossing contemporary story of how people from radically different backgrounds seek in individual ways for respect, mutual understanding, and love. Peter Storm, an assistant professor of sociology, receives the plum assignment of his career: to study at first hand the effects of modern technology on a remote Japanese rice farming village. His partner on the project is a...