Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. I know it's been done plenty of times,

but still, the idea of co-writing a novel seems so foreign to me. It's just ingrained in my head

that novel writing is a solitary art and only your editor and I guess your agent can bug you while you're doing it.

But of course, that's not true.

Today's book is titled Of White Ashes, and it's co-written by Constance Hayes Matsumoto and her husband, Kent Montemoto.

And it's a romance between two Japanese Americans during the U.S. internment.

But it's also, as Kent tells here and now Celeste Headley, a love story on multiple levels.

This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe.

When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with

no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit wise.com.

T's and C's apply.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods, NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you

understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or

wherever you get your podcasts. The new novel of White Ashes tells the story of an unlikely romance

shaped by World War II.

Ruby is a Japanese-American girl living with her family in Hawaii in the late 1930s.

But after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, her father is arrested by the U.S. government.

She and her family will eventually be confined in an interment camp,

a fate that befell some 120,000 Japanese Americans. At the same time, Koji is growing in Hiroshima, Japan. His life is overshadowed first by his country's growing militarism,

and later by the atomic bombing of a city. Through a series of circumstances, the pair meet

...