The story of Lafcadio Hearn is already interesting: a man with Greek-Irish heritage, who spent years in America after renouncing his Irish family before moving to Japan. Into this story is woven the fictionalised lives and voices of the three most important women in his life, along with passages from his existing biography, published in 1906 by Elizabeth Bisland.

Hearn is a much-travelled writer with poor eyesight and many names: born as Patricio (or Patrick) Lafcadio Hearn, known as Pat in America and given the Japanese name of Koizumi Yakumo. He’s secretive. Even when he loves deeply, there are parts of his life he keeps to himself.

Rosa Antonia Casamati is Hearn’s mother. She’s coerced into leaving Hearn in Ireland. Alethea Foley is an African-American woman working as a cook in the Cincinnati boarding house Hearn resides in. Their secret romance results in a marriage which, when exposed, loses Hearn his journalist’s job. Koizumi Setsu is the Japanese woman who becomes his (second) wife (the marriage to Alethea is unacknowledged) and mother to his four children.

The women narrate their stories to another: Rosa to a fellow traveller; Alethea to a journalist; Setsu to her husband’s ghost. They also give different meanings to ‘sweetest fruits’. For Rosa it’s the freedom to decide one’s own life, for Alethea it’s the heart of a good story, and for Setsu it’s her four children.

The voice of Alethea is the most authentic, lending a fluency to the narrative which is not quite present in the voices of Rosa or Setsu. Truong’s approach adds depth to Hearn’s story and rightly elevates those women in his life whose voices have thus far been silenced.

Reviewed by Bob Moore