Alex Thorn is in Japan to find out how his son was killed the year before. He's tried writing, tried phoning and faxing, but all he's gotten is a series of evasive replies -- or none at all. And because Gone With the Wind shipped his son's body back to the States, he turns up there to pursue his investigation. Which is how Gaby and Alex meet. What ensues is a comedy of errors as two very appealing (but very lonely) grownups become friends and, eventually, more than friends.

Peopled with a cast of ill-assorted exiles from the West and with Japanese from every walk of life, "American Fuji" is many novels rolled into one: it is both a mystery and a quest, a baedeker to contemporary Japan, a sometimes slapstick tour through the manners, mores, and prejudices of the Japanese, and a romantic comedy. Most of all, it is a novel that treats with hilarious irreverence the misunderstandings and misalliances that happen when two dramatically different cultures bump into one another. "Expect the unexpected. This is Japan",Gaby tells Alex. And indeed, readers should do the same as they settle in for a trip full of surprises.