{"product_id":"where-the-heart-returns-alice-corwin-9798254250296","title":"Where the Heart Returns: A Novel of Heartbreak, Healing, and Second Chances in Japan","description":"When Lena's husband confesses to a seven-month affair, she does not cry. She washes the dishes. She goes to the spare room. And a few weeks later, when the project she has been holding together finally closes, she books a flight to Japan.\u003cbr\u003eNot to escape. Or at least, that is what she tells herself. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSince childhood she has carried a memory of a forest from a beloved Japanese animated film, ancient and mossy and entirely real in her mind. Now, finally, she is going to find it. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat she does not plan for is Noah. What she does not plan for, either, is everything else. A shrine inside an ancient forest. An Obon Festival at sundown where lanterns drift across a dark lake and people write their wishes in the quiet. The conversations that arrive sideways, on late trains and in narrow bars, saying things she had not known she needed to say. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAnd underneath all of it, one question she did not know she was carrying until Japan made her still enough to hear it. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat do you actually want your life to feel like?\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNot what makes sense. Not what is reasonable given everything. What do you actually want. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eShe built everything carefully. She held it all together. She was very good at both of those things. But somewhere along the way she stopped being able to tell whether she was living inside her life or simply maintaining it from the outside. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhere the Heart Returns\u003c\/i\u003e is a quiet, luminous novel about heartbreak, self-discovery, and the particular honesty of being somewhere entirely new. About the things we carry without knowing their weight. And about what happens when you finally stop long enough to hear the question you have been avoiding. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSome answers only come when you are far enough away to see clearly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Alice Corwin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798254250296\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/30\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 134\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.36lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.29d","brand":"Alice Corwin","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49172824162559,"sku":"9798254250296","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/where-the-heart-returns-alice-corwin-9798254250296","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}