The character of Maya Ishida would be like that of any other young American woman except that she was raised in Japan but then moved to Minneapolis, of all places, when her mother left her father. Her father, a visionary artist, affected Maya's life in specific ways, many of which Maya doesn't really consider until she finds out about his untimely death. At this point in her life, the renewed vision of her father causes her to question everything about her life, from her near-death marriage to her pursuing a career other than the artistic one she wanted to pursue and the strained and strange relationship she has with her mother. STONE FIELD, TRUE ARROW is a beautifully rendered book about the complexities of balancing where you came from with where you want to be going.

Mori's language is poetic in places, but her strong suit as a novelist is her succinct way of letting the reader in on the interior monologues that are going on in her character's head. Using Maya as a sounding board, the other characters reveal the truths of their lives but always in context with the way Maya is feeling about them, a sure shot path to maintaining dramatic interest. Maya is an active character both in her life of the mind and in her physical world and she becomes a most compelling beacon of change for everyone around her.