Citizen is a rich, compelling novel that interweaves the lives of individuals with the major global conflict of the 20th century. The book tells the stories of three families that struggle through the captivity and inherent racism in the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.

The novel focuses on Will and Molly Whitman – based on the real life publishers Walt and Milly Woodward—a young couple who are new to publishing. They have recently purchased The Bainbridge Review, a weekly that serves the small island of Bainbridge Island, Washington. Shortly after they buy the newspaper the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Before three months pass, nearly 300 of their neighbors are rounded up and taken away to internment camps throughout the west. This is a human story of fear, courage and love. Set in a charming Northwest community and in the desert northeast of Los Angeles, the characters in Citizen live through issues that remain in today’s headlines.