Synopses & Reviews
In time for the one year anniversary of the 2011 earthquake in Japan, a collection of essays and stories by Japanese writers on the devastating disaster, its aftermath, and the resolve of a people to rebuild.
On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake occurred off the northeastern coast of Japan, triggering a 50-foot tsunami that crushed everything in its path—highways, airports, villages, trains, and buses—leaving death and destruction behind, and causing a major radiation leak from five nuclear plants. Here eighteen writers give us their trenchant observations and emotional responses to such a tragedy, in what is a fascinating, enigmatic and poignant collection.
About the Author
Elmer Luke is a writer and editor who has worked in publishing houses in New York and Tokyo, with a range of authors including Tom Wicker, Haruki Murakami, Colleen McCullough, Hiromi Kawakami, and Robert Whiting. He is adviser to the Read Japan project. David Karashima is an author whose first novel, in Japanese, was recipient of a prize for new writers; he is also a widely published translator of contemporary Japanese fiction into English, having translated works by Hitomi Kanehara, Taichi Yamada, Yasutaka Tsutsui, and Hisaki Matsuura, among others. In 2008 he helped found the Read Japan initiative at the Nippon Foundation, a partnership among authors, translators, editors, publishers, and universities to facilitate the publication of Japanese literature in translation.
Table of Contents
Forewordby John Burnham Schwartz
Introduction
by Elmer Luke and David Karashima
The Island of Eternal Life
by Yoko Tawada
The Charm
by Kiyoshi Shigematsu
Nightcap
by Yoko Ogawa
God Bless You, 2011
with postscript and original 1993 version
by Hiromi Kawakami
March Yarn
by Mieko Kawakami
Lulu
by Shinji Ishii
One Year Later
by J. D. McClatchy
Grandma’s Bible
by Natsuki Ikezawa
Pieces
by Mitsuyo Kakuta
Sixteen Years Later, in the Same Place
by Hideo Furukawa
The Crows and the Girl
by Brother & Sister Nishioka
Box Story
by Tetsuya Akikawa
Dream from a Fisherman’s Boat
by Barry Yourgrau
Hiyoriyama
by Kazumi Saeki
Ride on Time
by Kazushige Abe
Little Eucalyptus Leaves
by Ryu Murakami
After the Disaster, Before the Disaster
by David Peace