Author D. K. Furutani promotes debut novel “When Mikan Road Was Ours”

Los Angeles‑based writer D. K. Furutani, winner of Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us contest, is promoting his debut novel When Mikan Road Was Ours. The literary‑fiction work follows four generations of a Japanese‑American family in California, tracing their lives from 1930s farm life through World War II internment and into the present day. Themes of inheritance, identity and belonging are explored through the protagonist Murano, a high‑school English teacher who inherits his great‑uncle’s unpublished memoir.

The novel, slated for publication by Atria Books on July 28 2026, will be highlighted at a book‑signing and discussion on August 5 at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. Furutani will converse with award‑winning mystery author Naomi Hirahara. The event comes amid a Los Angeles heat wave and follows the author’s recent interviews in which he linked the book’s inspiration to the national reckoning over racial injustice and anti‑Asian hate.

Furutani, who grew up in Southern California and lives there with his wife and three cats, has received support from the Periplus Collective and Tin House workshops. The novel has been praised for its historical detail and its meditation on family resilience.