Powerful untold stories...

When American journalist Amy Chavez moved to the tiny island of Shiraishi (population 430), she rented a house from an elderly woman named Eiko, who left many of her most cherished possessions in the house — including a portrait of Emperor Hirohito and a family altar bearing the spirit tablet of her late husband.

Why did she abandon these things? And why did her tombstone later bear the name of a daughter no one knew? These are just some of the mysteries Amy pursues as she explores the lives of Shiraishi's elusive residents.

And what she proceeds to uncover are powerful untold stories — and unusual secrets — from a resilient generation of island inhabitants, including an octopus hunter, a Buddhist priest, a "pufferfish widow," and a mountain-hiking postmaster.

When we asked Amy specifically about the women of this tiny island, here's what she had to say:

"The women here are just so stalwart, it’s impressive. They are not at all the stereotype of the meek or yielding Japanese woman. There’s the self-reliant 'Runaway,' who escaped to Tokyo when she was a high school student and married a Tokyo boy not of her parents’ choosing. There’s 'The Go-Between' who, like many others, thinks herself lucky she took the partner her parents had chosen for her rather than the one she would have chosen (and she herself became a go-between). 'The Mother of Eleven' expresses some of the injustices of her marriage and how she reconciled it. The 'Tombstone-Maker's Wife' married a man she had never met because she and her six siblings were so destitute, she saw it as an opportunity to escape poverty."

The Widow, The Priest, and The Octopus Hunter is out now. And you can read our interview with the author, Amy Chavez, right here.