|
Showing 1 - 7 of
7 matches in All Departments
At first, Tokyo appears in these stories as it does to many
outsiders: a city of bewildering scale, awe-inspiring modernity,
peculiar rules, unknowable secrets and, to some extent, danger.
Characters observe their fellow citizens from afar, hesitant to
stray from their daily routines to engage with them. But Tokyo
being the city it is, random encounters inevitably take place - a
naive book collector, mistaken for a French speaker, is drawn into
a world he never knew existed; a woman seeking psychiatric help
finds herself in a taxi with an older man wanting to share his own
peculiar revelations; a depressed divorcee accepts an unexpected
lunch invitation to try Thai food for the very first time... The
result in each story is a small but crucial change in perspective,
a sampling of the unexpected yet simple pleasure of other people's
company. As one character puts it, 'The world is full of delicious
things, you know.'
Belka, Why Don't You Bark? begins in 1943, when Japanese troops
retreat from the Aleutian island of Kiska, leaving four military
dogs behind. One of them dies in isolation, and the others are
taken under the protection of U.S. troops. Meanwhile, in the USSR,
a KGB military dog handler kidnaps the daughter of a Japanese
yakuza. Named after the Russian astronaut dog Strelka, the girl
develops a psychic connection with canines. A multi-generational
epic as seen through the eyes of man's best friend, the dogs who
are used as mere tools for the benefit of humankind gradually
discover their true selves, and learn something about us.
"As we passed from the city center into the Fukushima suburbs I
surveyed the landscape for surgical face masks. I wanted to see in
what ratios people were wearing such masks. I was trying to
determine, consciously and unconsciously, what people do in
response. So, among people walking along the roadway, and people on
motorbikes, I saw no one with masks. Even among the official
crossing guards outfitted with yellow flags and banners, none. All
showed bright and calm. What was I hoping for exactly? The guilty
conscience again. But then it was time for school to start. We
began to see groups of kids on their way to school. They were
wearing masks." Horses, Horses, in the End the Light Remains Pure
is a multifaceted literary response to the earthquake, tsunami, and
nuclear meltdown that devastated northeast Japan on March 11, 2011.
The novel is narrated by Hideo Furukawa, who travels back to his
childhood home near Fukushima after 3/11 to reconnect with a place
that is now doubly alien. His ruminations conjure the region's
storied past, particularly its thousand-year history of horses,
humans, and the struggle with a rugged terrain. Standing in the
morning light, these horses also tell their stories, heightening
the sense of liberation, chaos, and loss that accompanies
Furukawa's rich recollections. A fusion of fiction, history, and
memoir, this book plays with form and feeling in ways reminiscent
of Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory and W. G. Sebald's The Rings of
Saturn yet draws its own, unforgettable portrait of personal and
cultural dislocation.
|
Slow Boat (Paperback)
Hideo Furukawa; Translated by David Boyd
1
|
R303
R245
Discovery Miles 2 450
Save R58 (19%)
|
Ships in 9 - 15 working days
|
A startling novella from the heir to Haruki Murakami and Gabriel
Garcia Marquez Trapped in Tokyo, left behind by a series of
girlfriends, the narrator of Slow Boat sizes up his situation. His
missteps, his violent rebellions, his tiny victories. But he is not
a passive loser, content to accept all that fate hands him. He
attempts one last escape to the edges of the city, holding the only
safety net he has known - his dreams. Filled with lyrical longing
and humour, Slow Boat captures perfectly the urge to get away and
the necessity of finding yourself in a world which might never even
be looking for you.
This volume of essays and translations analyzes the prodigious and
wide-ranging output of Keijiro Suga. Based in Japan, Keijiro Suga's
works are wide-ranging and multilingual. His volumes of poetry have
been shortlisted for a range of poetry prizes, and he was awarded
the 2011 Yomiuri Shinbun Prize for Travel writing. He has
translated dozens of books and has authored or co-authored more
than fifteen other books across various genres. He is, by his own
introduction, a poet first, but is also a prolific book reviewer,
an astute theorist, and an insightful critic. His presence and
contributions have been profound in many countries around the
globe.
This volume of essays and translations analyzes the prodigious and
wide-ranging output of Suga Keijiro. Based in Japan, Suga Keijiro's
(b. 1958-) works are wide-ranging and multilingual. His volumes of
poetry have been shortlisted for a range of poetry prizes, and he
was awarded the 2011 Yomiuri Shinbun Prize for Travel writing. He
has translated dozens of books and has authored or co-authored more
than fifteen other books across various genres. He is, by his own
introduction, a poet first, but is also a prolific book reviewer,
an astute theorist, and an insightful critic. His presence and
contributions have been profound in many countries around the
globe.
"As we passed from the city center into the Fukushima suburbs I
surveyed the landscape for surgical face masks. I wanted to see in
what ratios people were wearing such masks. I was trying to
determine, consciously and unconsciously, what people do in
response. So, among people walking along the roadway, and people on
motorbikes, I saw no one with masks. Even among the official
crossing guards outfitted with yellow flags and banners, none. All
showed bright and calm. What was I hoping for exactly? The guilty
conscience again. But then it was time for school to start. We
began to see groups of kids on their way to school. They were
wearing masks." Horses, Horses, in the End the Light Remains Pure
is a multifaceted literary response to the earthquake, tsunami, and
nuclear meltdown that devastated northeast Japan on March 11, 2011.
The novel is narrated by Hideo Furukawa, who travels back to his
childhood home near Fukushima after 3/11 to reconnect with a place
that is now doubly alien. His ruminations conjure the region's
storied past, particularly its thousand-year history of horses,
humans, and the struggle with a rugged terrain. Standing in the
morning light, these horses also tell their stories, heightening
the sense of liberation, chaos, and loss that accompanies
Furukawa's rich recollections. A fusion of fiction, history, and
memoir, this book plays with form and feeling in ways reminiscent
of Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory and W. G. Sebald's The Rings of
Saturn yet draws its own, unforgettable portrait of personal and
cultural dislocation.
|
You may like...
Celebrations
Jan Kohler
Hardcover
R450
R351
Discovery Miles 3 510
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
The Expendables 2
Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, …
Blu-ray disc
(1)
R64
Discovery Miles 640
|