Cherry trees also bloom at night

"On the snow-covered path, I make myself a promise: until my last breath, I will transmit the memory of the past.

So that it never happens again." Japan, 1993.

That morning, at Kyoto hospital, Yuna didn't expect her first patient to be her sister Ama, whom she hadn't seen in over thirty years.

I urgently need a transplant from a close relative.

But, as Yuna searches for a compatible donor, a new revelation turns everything upside down: Ama was adopted. To save her, Yuna sets out to find her biological family in former Manchuria.

In her quest, she is far from suspecting that she will uncover one of the best-kept secrets of the Second World War.

From Japanese-occupied China in 1944 to the streets of Kyoto and the snow-capped Japanese Alps, Garance Solveg takes us to the heart of an extraordinary family saga.

Review from La Librairie du Grimoire Ancien

The Cherry Trees Also Blossom at Night by Garance Solveg is a historical and family saga of rare emotional power. Published by J'ai Lu, this novel masterfully weaves a dual temporal narrative that takes us from Japanese-occupied China in 1944 to the snow-capped Japanese Alps, via the streets of Kyoto in 1993.

Solveg bravely and sensitively tackles one of the best-kept secrets of the Second World War, while constructing a deeply moving quest for identity. Yuna's search to save her sister Ama becomes a dizzying dive into history and family memory, where each revelation uncovers truths buried for decades.

The author masters the art of the family saga in the manner of Min Jin Lee's Pachinko or Isabelle Massieu's L'Empreinte française, blending grand history and individual destinies with poetic elegance. The title itself evokes this fragile beauty that persists even in darkness, a powerful metaphor for resilience and the transmission of memory. An essential read for anyone who seeks in literature a door to understanding history and humanity.

— La Librairie du Grimoire Ancien