D.K. Furutani will discuss and sign his debut novel, When Mikan Road Was Ours, at Vroman’s Bookstore at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, August 5, appearing in conversation with Edgar Award–winning author Naomi Hirahara.
The novel, published July 28 by Atria Books, follows Murano, a reclusive Los Angeles high school English teacher who inherits an unpublished memoir written by his great-uncle Benjiro. The document pulls him back to 1930s California farmland and to his family’s incarceration during World War II, according to the publisher’s description of the book.
The pairing carries local weight. Hirahara was born in Pasadena in 1962 and lived in Altadena with her family until 1971, when they moved to South Pasadena, according to her published biography and to reporting by Altadena Now. Her parents, Sam and May Hirahara, married in Hiroshima in 1960 and made their first home in Altadena. Her father survived the atomic bombing and later worked in gardening and landscaping — the basis for Mas Arai, the Altadena gardener and Hiroshima survivor at the center of the mystery series that won her an Edgar Award. Hirahara, a former editor of The Rafu Shimpo, was inducted into Vroman’s Author Walk of Fame in November 2018. Her most recent novel, Crown City, set in 1903 Pasadena, was released in February.
The venue has its own connection to the subject matter. Vroman’s, founded in 1894, states on its company history page that during World War II the store donated and delivered books to Japanese Americans held at nearby camps, returning on several occasions despite being fired upon by camp guards. That account is the store’s own. Vroman’s likewise describes itself as the oldest and largest independent bookstore in Southern California.
Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced in a May 22, 2024 press release that Furutani had won the third annual Books Like Us First Novel Contest, a program the publisher said is intended to open access to publishing for writers from underrepresented groups. The book was announced at that time under the working title This Is Where You Are Now and was slated for a spring 2026 release. In the same press release, Furutani said the win was “a dream opportunity to amplify the stories of Japanese Americans.” Hirahara, who supplied a cover endorsement for the novel, called it “a beautiful symphony of voices.”
Furutani was born and raised in Los Angeles and works as a teacher, according to the Atria announcement. His writing has received support from the Periplus Collective and the Tin House workshops.
Need to know: D.K. Furutani, in conversation with Naomi Hirahara, discusses and signs When Mikan Road Was Ours takes place at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, August 5, at Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena. Vroman’s lists no admission charge and no ticket or registration link for the appearance, though the Playhouse Village district calendar directs readers to the organizer on both cost and registration; attendees should confirm with the store. Vroman’s does not publish parking information for event attendees, and its posted accessibility statement addresses website conformance rather than physical access to the building. The store can be reached at (626) 449-5320.
