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Chigiri,
a divorced single mother, lives in the countryside town where
she grew up, caring for her sword-smith father whose trade and
health are failing. Her life seems to be going nowhere. When a
documentary filmmaker who worked on a piece about her father many
years ago revisits the town, Chigiri, who was still a high school
student back then, begins to feel like one again. Yet feelings
aren't where it ends when a half-serious offer of prostitution
is floated between the financially desperate Chigiri and Go, the
visitor, who has since become successful in Tokyo.
With a philosophical acumen
and exaltation of passion reminiscent of Yukio Mishima, Milan
Kundera, and Marguerite Duras, Translucent Tree follows
the story of mature lovers for whom, despite all, innocence is
never a thing of the past.
Click
here to read a free preview.
“Translucent
Tree left this reader with a feeling of pure insight into
Japan, not unlike the movies of Hayao Miyazaki… This is
a romance, a love story, and nothing is lost in translation.”
— Los Angeles Times
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No
romance novelist enjoys more critical accolades than author Nobuko
Takagi, who won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize when she made
her debut in 1984. In this novel, penned nearly two decades later,
Japan’s queen of love stories harkens back to her roots
in literary fiction to offer a tale as exquisite as it is torrid.
Translucent Tree not only won the Tanizaki Award, granted
to the best literary novel of the year, but also garnered further
acclaim as a successful feature film.
 After
working as an editor, Nobuko Takagi won the Akutagawa Prize in
1984 and became a professional writer in her thirties. In addition
to the Tanizaki Award for Translucent Tree, she has been
the recipient of the Women’s Literature Award and the Minister
of Culture Award. Translucent Tree is her first novel
to appear in English. The author lives in Fukuoka, Japan.
Visit
Soaked
In Asia (“SIA”) Nobuko Takagi's online
collection of short stories. The stories are available in English
as well as Japanese.
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