Why She Left Us tells the story of three generations of a Japanese-American family whose lives are tragically affected by the Second World War when they are interned in camps in the American West. It is also a searing yet redemptive novel about a family and its secrets--secrets that grow from fierce love and terrible fear whose sources are both personal and cultural. The story unfolds like a mystery, narrated by the four principal characters: the innocents, Mari and her brother, Eric; the complex uncle-patriarch, Jack; and the ghost voice of the grandmother Kaori. Why She Left Us illuminates the universal relationships between mothers and their children while evoking the power of history to affect indivdual lives.