Reviews of Picking Bones from Ash

“Mockett presents a well-written and notable story of three generations of strong-willed women, each in search of something just out of their grasp; the sacrifices they make for their daughters; and the unseen repercussions of choices made long ago.” —BOOKLIST

“A book of intelligence and heart. As Mockett reveals, the ghosts of our mothers are always within us.” —AMY TAN

“Deeply preoccupied with girls, talent, and power." —MAUD NEWTON

“A voice so authentic and eloquent it is hard to believe this is Mockett’s first novel.” —LARGEHEARTED BOY

“Picking Bones from Ash drew me in from the first sentence.” —THE FEMINIST REVIEW

“[A] poignant debut novel….Amidst greediness, rationalism and misguided hope, [Mockett] beautifully illustrates the fervent presence of ancient and recent pasts.” —POP DAMAGE

“I don’t know when I last read a novel with two such captivating heroines as Marie Mutsuki Mockett conjures up in her intricate and absorbing novel Picking Bones From Ash. Like Satomi and Rumi, Mockett is ‘fiercely, inarguably, and masterfully talented.’ An immensely satisfying debut.” —MARGOT LIVESEY

“Picking Bones from Ash beautifully interweaves the stories of three women with their own individual strengths…I definitely recommend you take this unique journey through these women’s lives.” —THE UNDOMESTIC GODDESS

“Marie Mockett is a remarkably engaging writer who manages to pull her audience into the protagonists’ worlds from her first sentence. Her evocative descriptions of Japan conjure up images of a geography and culture rarely experienced by Westerners…that linger in the mind long after the reader has turned the final page.” —THE F WORD (UK)

“Marie Mockett brings postwar Japan into the 21st Century with sensitivity and grace, drawing the lives of three women to illuminate the tension between two cultures. Picking Bones from Ash is a lovely book.” —KIT REED

“In Marie Mockett’s first novel—which ranges in confident and lovely prose from a mountain town in mid-century Japan to an antiques business in contemporary San Francisco—temples, ghosts, and oni demons aren’t inert markers of exoticism: they’re embedded in a lived web of human relationships and everyday tasks. Beginning in a world as solid as Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, Picking Bones from Ash takes the reader down a rabbit-hole as matter-of-factly supernatural as that of Haruki Murakami’s Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. This wiry and delicate novel, as grounded as it is surreal, goes down like a tall glass of water. Except it’s spiked: like Rumi, the younger of Mockett’s two heroines, you will be haunted until you finish this book.” —ELLIS AVERY

“Remarkable and arresting, this debut has the pleasures of a fairy tale and a novel at the same time. Mockett probes the family mythology of a very peculiar line of talented Japanese women who may or may not be descended from the Princess of the Moon, and spins the tale of how they survived post-war Japan, modernity and life in America. A spellbinding new talent.” —ALEXANDER CHEE

“Mockett has made an impressive debut with Picking Bones from Ash. Here, she creates a fully-absorbing world with vivid characters who search for what was painfully lost to them. Mockett is a beautiful writer.” —MIN JIN LEE, author of Free Food for Millionaires