Lisa Countryman is a woman of complex origins. Half Japanese, adopted by African American parents, she returns to Tokyo, ostensibly to research her thesis on Japan's "sad, brutal reign of conformity." When she vanishes, Tom Hurley, who is half Korean and half white, is assigned to her case at the American Embassy, as is local cop Kenzo Ota, who is one hundred percent Japanese but deemed an outsider.

In this "poignant story of prejudice, betrayal, and the search for identity" (Newsweek International), the trials and tribulations of these three remarkable characters arer "at turns trenchantly funny and heartbreakingly sad" (Publishers Weekly). "[An] elegant and haunting debut" (Entertainment Weekly), Country of Origin is a "Literary triumph" (Booklist).

DON LEE is the author of the acclaimed story collection "Yellow," which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. The longtime editor of "Ploughshares," he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.