| Sacred Cesium Ground and Isa's Deluge: Two Novellas of Japan's 3/11 Disaster Contributor(s): Kimura, Yūsuke (Author), Slaymaker, Doug (Translator) |
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ISBN: 0231189435 ISBN-13: 9780231189439 Publisher: Columbia University Press OUR PRICE: $20.79 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary |
| Dewey: 895.636 |
| LCCN: 2018023442 |
| Series: Weatherhead Books on Asia |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 5.4" W x 8.4" (0.55 lbs) 176 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Japanese |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In these two novellas, Kimura Yūsuke explores human and animal life in northern Japan after the natural and nuclear disasters of March 11, 2011. Kimura inscribes the "Triple Disaster" into a rich regional tradition of storytelling, incorporating far-flung voices and experiences to testify to life and the desire to represent it in the aftermath of calamity. In Sacred Cesium Ground, a woman from Tokyo travels to volunteer at a cattle farm known as the "Fortress of Hope," tending irradiated animals abandoned after the reactor meltdown. The farm closely resembles an actual ranch that has been widely covered in Japan, and the story's portrayal of those who stubbornly care for animals in spite of the danger speaks to the sense of futility and meaningfulness in the wake of traumatic events. Isa's Deluge depicts a family of fishermen whose crotchety patriarch draws on old tales of the floods that have plagued the region to fashion himself as the father of the tsunami. Together, the novellas present often-unheard voices of one of Japan's peripheral regions and their anger toward the government and Tokyo for mishandling and forgetting their part of the country. Kimura's command of dialect and conversational language is masterfully translated by Doug Slaymaker. Postapocalyptically surreal yet teeming with life, Kimura's stories will be a revelation for readers looking for a new perspective on the disaster's consequences for Japan and on the interrelated meanings of human and animal lives and deaths. |
Contributor Bio(s): Kimura, Yūsuke: - Yūsuke Kimura (b. 1970) lived near Fukushima, Japan, until moving to Tokyo for university. His "Seagull Treehouse" (2009) won the 33rd Subaru Prize. Isa's Deluge (2012) was a finalist for the Mishima Yukio Prize, and Sacred Cesium Ground was a finalist for the Noma Literary Prize. His most recently published work is a 230-page feature in the prestigious Shinchō journal, entitled A Portrait of Stray Humans Going Up in Flames.Slaymaker, Doug: - Doug Slaymaker is professor of Japanese at the University of Kentucky. His most recent translation is Furukawa Hideo's Horses, Horses, in the Innocence of Light: A Tale That Begins with Fukushima (CUP, 2016). His books include The Body in Postwar Fiction: Japanese Fiction after the War (Routledge, 2004, paperback, 2012); Literary Mischief: Sakaguchi Ango, Culture, and the War (with James Dorsey, Lexington Books, 2010); and Yōko Tawada: Voices from Everywhere (Lexington Books, 2007). He has published numerous translations. |