The death of a mother casts the longest shadow. When Madame Many Smiles, the celebrated dancer whose smile could dismantle empires, passes from the world, she leaves behind her daughter Sunny in a house of a thousand joys that holds no happiness for a child. The House of a Thousand Joys is a world of painted faces and invisible cages, where young girls learn that beauty is currency and compliance is survival. Sunny, thrust into her mother's spotlight before she's ready, must navigate the geisha system's ancient expectations while the house's master Hirata watches with menace in his eyes. What saves her is something her mother never had: an audience of young Americans, far from home, who see not an exotic performer but a child in danger. When Sunny's performance captivates these students, they become her rescuers, pulling her from a system designed to contain her. Onoto Watanna, writing in 1922 under a pseudonym that allowed her to navigate the era's brutal racism, crafted something radical: a story of escape that refuses to let the West off the hook even as it celebrates rescue. This is a novel about what it costs to belong to two worlds that both want something from you.
