sako Serizawa’s debut short story collection, “Inheritors” (out July 14), chronicles the experiences of a family of Japanese descent over the course of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Its broad scope and episodic structure allow Serizawa to quickly shift between exploring the small, emotionally resonant nuances of family relationships and tackling larger, more sweeping themes of identity, racism, colonialism and war.
In this, “Inheritors” recalls Akil Kumarsamy’s 2018 book “Half Gods,” which featured a Sri Lankan Tamil family — particularly in how it examines the long-lasting burdens of Western colonialism and the challenges second-generation Americans face as they try to honor their heritage while also forging their own path in the world.
But Serizawa goes further. She experiments with style, perspective and form, searching for the best way to tell each particular story. Some are presented as interrogations, one-sided interview transcripts, or confessions. And though much of the book is set among the events and aftermath of World War II, the final few stories dare to look into the future at where humanity might end up given our current trajectory.
The emotional core of the book springs out of the events of March 9, 1945, when U.S. bombers firebombed Tokyo, killing more than 100,000 civilians. In “Allegiance,” we meet Masaharu and Masako and learn that their son, Seiji, disappeared that night and is presumed dead. The couple goes on to adopt Masaaki, a Korean orphan whose mother had been enslaved by the Japanese army. They conceal his true heritage; his late-in-life discovery of this leads to the dissolution of his own family and his estrangement from his daughter, Luna.