Bøger af Maki Kashimada

WINNER OF THE MISHIMA YUKIO PRIZEA WORLD LITERATURE TODAY NOTABLE BOOK 2023An ordinary housewife finds herself haunted by visions of a mushroom cloud and abruptly leaves her husband and son to travel alone to the city of Nagasaki, where she soon begins an affair with a young half-Russian, half-Japanese man.Inspired by Marguerite Duras's screenplay for "Hiroshima, Mon Amour," this novel is a further demonstration of Kashimada's distinctive literary style and technique and her commitment to plumbing the depths of her characters' psychology. Dealing with the travails and traumas of history, with gendered identity, with the tension between private and public selves, Love at Six Thousand Degrees is a distinctive and intriguing novel by one of Japan's most unique contemporary authors.

"Natsuko lives with her husband Taichi, who was forced to stop working eight years ago by the sudden onset of a brain disease. Ever since then, they have been living on her part-time wages and what he receives in disability. But Natsuko is well accustomed to financial hardship. Before meeting Taichi, she lived with her mother, a proud woman who clung to illusions of affluence long after the family riches had dried up. Her mother and her brother are haunted by their former station in life, restless spirits unable to live according to their present realities, and uncomprehending of Natsuko's decision to marry a lowly functionary. One day, Natsuko sees an ad for a rest-and-recreation center posted on a bulletin board: February Only: Weeknights 5,000 Yen (5000 Yen = Approx. 50USD). She recognizes the place as a former luxury hotel--a symbol of that time in her mother's youth when she wanted for nothing. Natsuko's grandfather, who single-handedly built the family fortune, had taken her mother to the storied hotel when she was little. When, for the first time in years, Natsuko and her husband take an overnight trip to a spa that was once a luxury hotel Natusko remembers staying in when she and her family had wealth and prestige. However, the building triggers memories and epiphanies relating to the complicated history of her family. Natsuko's overnight trip becomes a voyage into the netherworld--a journey to the doors of death and back to life. The volume also contains a short story modeled on Junichiro Tanizaki's The Makioka Sisters titled Ninety-Nine Kisses, which portrays four unmarried sisters living in an old-fashioned neighborhood in contemporary Tokyo."--Provided by publisher.

A dream-like, emotionally charged tale by a bold new voice in Japanese fiction