Rating: 
Summary: An ending not to be missed
Review: A beautiful first novel - Miss Fuji is a character to remember. Quiet, haunting, reflective, soulful are just a few words to describe this deeply telling and touching book. The ending is unforgettable - you will want to read this book in one sitting.
Rating:
Summary: A must-read
Review: I heard about this novel from a friend, and was afraid it might be depressing. But I was surprised at its warmth and compassion. It is both quiet and exotic, a mesmerizing read. I haven't read such a good novel in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I telling story about the victims of leprosy in the not too distant past that is highly recommended. Compassionate and lyrical.
Rating: 
Summary: I've read better
Review: I was fascinated by the subject of this book because I had just finished reading Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, which is about a young Hawaiian girl who contracts leprosy and is sent to the island of Moloka'i. I think Moloka'i is better by far, beautifully written with an uplifting story about a young girl finding happiness amidst overwhelming obstacles. If you're going to buy one, choose Moloka'i.
Rating:
Summary: (3.5)The small dignities of a loving heart
Review: In this quietly moving novel of a young woman's life on the leper's island of Nagashima, Talarigo speaks of horror with tenderness, of dreams interrupted, families who disown the contaminated, condemning them to a slow death in isolation. Even though a cure is found in the 1940's, the officials refuse to release those patients whose disease can be controlled, fearing a public outcry. Consequently, the lepers remain on the island, sharing their stories, skills and incredible generosity. Voiceless in a society that will not hear them; the lepers comfort each other, compassionate in a world that has none for themThe story begins on the leper's island of Nagashima in 1948, where a young woman stands at the base of the suicide cliff. There desperate bodies have cast themselves into oblivion rather than face the empty years ahead. She looks across the sea, where the pearl divers begin their daily diving adventures, a life she once shared. Her disease has not progressed; in fact, there is medication to impede the progress of the disease. Still a young woman, "Miss Fuji" has only her memories of diving, deeper and deeper into the comforting silence of the sea. Miss Fuji gives daily massages to the other lepers, cataloging their loss of fingers and toes, the result of an absence of nerve endings, causing frequent damage to limbs. At night the patients take turns, rotating watches in their vigilance against rats that nibble at the fingers and toes of sleeping victims. The pearl diver swims in at night to surrounding islands, her secret rebellion, where children play during the day. As the years pass, and the lepers are fractionally integrated into society, Miss Fuji is tethered to the only home she has really known, tethered by her heart and her emotions. Freedom is a concept she nurtures in her soul, preserving her private dignity. The young woman and the people she has come to know so well make a livable space where the life is unlivable, where death and decay permeate the air, poisoning hope. For all their deformities, their insides shine with a light that cannot be extinguished. In the Japanese manner, the dying create a shrine to life: asked to be complicit in horror, they find whatever small redemption is possible, forming a spiritual chain to one another. The Pearl Diver is a small but powerful testimony to the best qualities of humankind. With the precision of a calligrapher, the author pays homage to the pearl diver and the other shadowy figures that live and die on the island. The image of the pearl diver remains, washed in the dulcet tones of the past; her interminable kindness from inside the heart of isolation suggests the true nature of humanity in adversity. Luan Gaines/2004.
Rating: 
Summary: A brief, poetic glimpse into leprosy
Review: Rebeccasreads recommends THE PEARL DIVER as a sad, strange, exquisitely written if disjointed glimpse into the Japanese treatment of people infected with leprosy in a time when the medical community did not understand the disease & was filled with shame & prejudice. The only redemption & humanity in this tale is found in the compassion of the internees in the colony. Could not put it down!
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable!
Review: The story of The Pearl Diver allows us to follow "Miss Fuji" into a world she must enter when she learns that she has leprosy. From the moment her disease becomes known to her family and community, she must endure devastating cruelties. Once she reaches her exile, the island of Nagashima, she moves amongst her fellow victims with great dignity, purpose and kindness. Miss Fuji was to me an illuminating force and after turning the last page, I didn't want to let her go.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable!
Review: The story of The Pearl Diver allows us to follow "Miss Fuji" into a world she must enter when she learns that she has leprosy. From the moment her disease becomes known to her family and community, she must endure devastating cruelties. Once she reaches her exile, the island of Nagashima, she moves amongst her fellow victims with great dignity, purpose and kindness. Miss Fuji was to me an illuminating force and after turning the last page, I didn't want to let her go.
Rating:
Summary: A little gross
Review: This book is beautifully written, and full of life, but they lost me when the descriptions of people's fingers being eaten by rats at night!
Rating:
Summary: The best book of the year
Review: This is affecting and elegantly written. It's a small masterpiece.
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