Interview - Leslie Shimotakahara and The Breakwater

From Canada Reads American Style by Canada Reads American Style

March 29, 2026 · 31 min · Episode 262

About this episode

Rebecca interviews Canadian author Leslie Shimotakahara about her upcoming novel, The Breakwater.

Rebecca is excited to chat with Canadian author Leslie Shimotakahara about her latest novel, The Breakwater, which will be published by Cormorant Books in April 2026. https://www.cormorantbooks.com/Books/T/The-Breakwater "One morning in Toronto, Cathy Matsumoto’s father, Yasuo, calls to announce he intends to visit a dying cousin in British Columbia. Cathy’s never heard of this mysterious relative before, but she begrudgingly agrees to plan a family trip with her father and daughter, Tessa, to Victoria, the hometown Yas was forcibly evicted from when Japanese Canadians were interned during World War Two. It's only in BC that Cathy learns this “cousin” is actually Yas’s younger brother, Stum, who’s been languishing in psychiatric care, abandoned, ever since Yas committed him to Essondale Asylum before the war. Yas tries to fend off probing questions from his daughter and granddaughter, but revisiting old haunts brings back memories of the brothers’ boyhood rivalry and coming-of-age near Victoria’s Chinatown, when Yas’s resolve to hold their fractured family together clashed against Stum’s troublesome turn toward a life of gambling, crime, and consorting with prostitutes. In this…

People in this episode

Host: Rebecca

Guest: Leslie Shimotakahara

Topics covered

society
culture
fiction
arts
books

Keywords

The Breakwater
Cathy Matsumoto
Yasuo
Stum
family secrets
Japanese Canadians
internment
Victoria
Chinatown

Mentioned in this episode

Products: The Breakwater

Books & works: The Breakwater, Flashlight by Susan Choi, Worldly Girls: A Memoir by Tamara Jong, A Memoir of My Body

Places: Toronto, British Columbia, Victoria, BC