The Buddha in Our Bellies

A mysterious ailment rips through young Keith’s guts while his relations with family and the world are fraying. His childhood descends from undiagnosed illness to invisible identity to denied self. His only hope for healing lies in the least expected most vulnerable place. Yoshiko grows up determined to work for peace beyond her remote mountainside village and move past her family trauma of Stalin's forced labour camps and post-war starvation.The Buddha in Our Bellies spans continents and centuries in stories of identity and belonging — where do we fit? Yoshiko's memoirs of struggle hope and self-reliance intertwine with Keith's journeys from pain to purpose Buddhist tales and poetry.A third character enters these tales paralleling and reflecting Keith and Yoshiko's stories. Twenty-five centuries ago Siddhartha wandered the highways and forests of north-east India. He became the Buddha and his experience reverberates today. The Buddha in Our Bellies speculates on his childhood his suffering departure from home fall salvation and awakening. His relationship with three remarkable women is told — his wife whom he abandoned the milk-maid who saved him and a grief torn widow who became his friend.