The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was just a perfect glum January pick me up. It is split across two eras. The early era covering the early to mid 40's and the later period telling us about the character's lives 40 years on in the 80's.

A young Henry Lee is 12 when we first meet him in the 40's. He is an American born boy, living in Seattle with his Chinese parents. His father is a very traditional man who has escaped turmoil in China when the country was at war with Japan. His terrible ordeal has engendered a real fear and hatred of any Japanese people and foists his opinions on his young son. He expects great things of Henry and sends him to the local American school, rather than the Chinese school. He also insists that he only speaks English to him and his Mother. Henry's parents don't speak English, so this results in a prolonged period of little communication at home.

At school Henry experiences a lot of bullying and takes shelter by working in the kitchen at lunch time and after school. Here he meets the only other Asian child at the school, Keiko a gentle and friendly Japanese girl. He is too afraid to even speak to her at first, but slowly their differences to the other school children draws them together and here blossoms a romance and love that is a joy to see evolve.

Their love story is set against a harsh backdrop of USA policies during the Second World War of treating all Japanese residents as enemies. Rounding them all up to be shipped to an internment camp. Allowing minimal belongings to be taken to the camps means that many of the Japanese families look for places to store their precious memories, Wedding dresses and albums, graduation certificates and family heirlooms. The owner of Hotel Panama allows such possessions to be stored in the basement. We witness the extreme difficulties that Henry and Keiko have in surviving all the turmoil.

In the 80's Henry is a fragile old man who has just lost his wife to cancer. A chance passing of the Hotel Panama, sees the long forgotten possessions being brought up from the basement from a building that has been boarded up since the evacuation of Japan town in the war. This sets Henry on a path of searching for a treasured possession from Keiko's past.

Some may think that the story here becomes rather sentimental. I thought it was much more about Henry's reconciliation with his past, the difficult relationship he had with his Father and also his understanding of his own son. I think any sentimentality is balanced out with the sheer injustice of the internment that the Japanese encountered.

I absolutely fell in love with Henry, both as a young boy and an older man. Other significant characters were just as well drawn, the Jazz players, Chaz the bully and Mrs Beatty who was the kitchen supervisor. They all had so much to offer to the story.

I will be making no apologies for recommending this to everyone I discuss books with. I read it for a reading group which meets next week so it will be interesting to see if everyone was as swept away as I was by it.

I look forward to future Jamie Ford's publications. He is obviously a lovely chap as a Tweet I put out about how I'd loved the book, was promptly replied with a thank you. I may have done a happy little clap.