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In 2016 Scottish writer Iain Maloney and his Japanese wife Minori moved to a village in rural Japan. This is the story of his attempt to fit in, be accepted and fulfil his duties as a member of the community, despite being the only foreigner in the village. Even after more than a decade living in Japan and learning the language, life in the countryside was a culture shock. Due to increasing numbers of young people moving to the cities in search of work, there are fewer rural residents under the retirement age – and they have two things in abundance: time and curiosity. Iain's attempts at amateur farming, basic gardening and DIY are conducted under the watchful eye of his neighbours and wife. But curtain twitching is the least of his problems. The threat of potential missile strikes and earthquakes is nothing compared to the venomous snakes, terrifying centipedes and bees the size of small birds that stalk Iain's garden. Told with self-deprecating humour, this memoir gives a fascinating insight into a side of Japan rarely seen and affirms the positive benefits of immigration for the individual and the community. It's not always easy being the only gaijin in the village.
Features a village made of hot-air balloons, animals fighting machines for control, gladiator-style fighting, and one powerful journal that keeps two people who have never met in contact with one another from opposite sides of the world.
In 1988 the Piper Alpha oil platform off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland exploded, killing 167 men. The Waves Burn Bright is a deeply effecting, sensitive exploration of its devastating aftermath on one family. Carrie Fraser is 16 when the disaster occurs, her father Marcus one of the survivors. As the narrative moves between past and present the trauma blows open existing fractures, tearing the family apart. In adulthood and after many years living abroad, Carrie, now a respected volcanologist, is returning to Aberdeen to deliver a controversial academic paper. Carrie and her father are estranged, partly due to his post-traumatic stress and related alcoholism, a legacy of Piper Alpha. Will a reconciliation be possible or will the aftershocks of a tragedy that occurred 25 years before continue to drive father and daughter apart? ‘A cauldron of a book, bubbling with anger and magma which might at any moment spill over and bring further devastation. It is both particular to this tragedy in 1988, but also universal; a compelling story exploring how a father’s trauma sends shock waves through a family, changes the pattern of lives – particularly his daughter’s – and makes love risky. However, as well as being about damage and running away, it is also about healing.’ Linda Cracknell, author of Call of the Undertow and Doubling Back 'it wasn't so much that Maloney's characters had made an impact on my world, but that I had entered theirs... simply a cracking good read.' Alison Miller, author of Demo
The dynamic epic novel of political upheaval and societal change in late 1800s Japan, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author and unparalleled master of historical fiction, James Clavell This epic novel by master writer James Clavell, loosely based on the Namamugi Incident and Anglo-Satsuma War that took place in the late 1800s, is a richly researched, panoramic view of Japan’s budding relationship with the Western powers, its sweeping societal changes, and the political upheaval that followed. As Malcolm Struan, the son of Culum and Tess Struan, and a small band of Westerners travel down the Tōkaidō road, they are attacked by two Satsuma samurai, who mortally wound John Canterbury and seriously injure Malcolm, who then finds reprieve in the merchant village of Yokohama after a narrow escape facilitated by the unscathed Angelique. Angelique Richaud, Malcolm’s penniless but beautiful French companion, is thrown into a world of political intrigue, fierce devotion, unstable family dynamics, blackmail, and secrets as the trading houses battle for supremacy. With a cast of dynamic and fully recognized characters, Gai-Jin spins a tale of passionate love affairs, devastating loss, intense power struggles, and the fight to survive and thrive in a hostile new land that will leave readers longing for another foray into Clavell’s extraordinary Asian Saga.
In Kanazawa, the first literary novel in English to be set in this storied Japanese city, Emmitt’s future plans collapse when his wife, Mirai, suddenly backs out of negotiations to purchase their dream home. Disappointed, he’s surprised to discover Mirai’s subtle pursuit of a life and career in Tokyo, a city he dislikes. Harmony is further disrupted when Emmitt’s search for a more meaningful life in Japan leads him to quit an unsatisfying job at a local university. In the fallout, he finds himself helping his mother-in-law translate Kanazawa’s most famous author, Izumi Kyoka, into English. While continually resisting Mirai’s efforts to move to Tokyo, Emmitt becomes drawn into the mysterious death thirty years prior of a mutual friend of Mirai’s parents. It is only when he and his father-in-law climb the mountain where the man died that he learns the somber truth, and in turn discovers what the future holds for him and his wife. Packed with subtle literary allusion and closely observed nuance, with an intimacy of emotion inexorably tied both to the cityscape and Japan’s mountainous terrain, Kanazawa reflects the mood of Japanese fiction in a fresh, modern incarnation.
An American Family in Japan. The Fenter family travels from Springfield, Oregon in the summer of 1977 to Isahaya, Kyushu Japan to teach English at Chinzei Gakuin. The family of four: Kenneth 37, Lora 36, Philip 12, and Janelle 8 enter into a world where they are on display and unable to communicate. Gaijin! Gaijin! is a portrait of the people, customs, and traditions of contemporary Japan far from the bustle of of Tokyo.
An American antiques dealer-turned-reluctant private investigator draws on his knowledge of Japanese culture to assist the San Francisco police department with the senseless murder of an entire family.
A distinctive debut novel by a mature new voice sheds light on a previously neglected aspect of war, its casualties and victims, and those forces unleashed by a conflict that changed the world forever It's 1943 and Jack Devine, a farmer's son from the rural North of Scotland, is finally called up to the RAF. Jack dreams of becoming a pilot, breaking hearts, and returning home a hero. The realities of training are very different, with boredom, bullying, and casual violence the norm. Drawn together by a love of jazz music, Jack makes friends with Terry, a worldly Welshman dabbling in the black market; Joe, a fellow Scot and aggressive anti-fascist; and the public school educated Clive. The group form a jazz band to surprising acclaim and for a while an alternative future to that preordained for each seems possible. But the initial camaraderie soon gives way to simmering resentment as age-old tensions resurface. When one of the four dies in a suspicious flying accident, another in the group is suspected of murder. Jack must not only navigate the demands of pilot training, an errant girlfriend, constant redeployments, and a bloody war that is getting ever nearer, but also the ever-present danger closer to home and the increasing realization that the dice are stacked against those like him wishing to escape the shackles of the old order.
It had never been done before. Not in 4000 years of Japanese recorded history had anyone followed the Cherry Blossom Front from one end of the country to the other. Nor had anyone hitchhiked the length of Japan. But, heady on sakura and sake, Will Ferguson bet he could do both. The resulting travelogue is one of the funniest and most illuminating books ever written about Japan. And, as Ferguson learns, it illustrates that to travel is better than to arrive.
'You may never have been, may never go, may never even have heard of the place – but Malawi will repay your attention. It is one of the smallest, poorest countries in Africa, often overlooked; but its relationship with us in the West has been extraordinary.' In a ruined dictator's palace, Alexander Chula – a classicist-turned-doctor, fresh out of Oxford – stumbles upon an oak treasure chest. Inside is a priceless, antique edition of Julius Caesar's Gallic War. This unexpected talisman of Western high culture belongs to the mercurial Dr Banda, a man of many parts: scholarly physician, anti-colonial hero, brutal tyrant, and fallen philosopher-king. Banda leads the author deep into the heart of this mysterious country, there to uncover a bizarre meeting of worlds: between one of Africa's most fascinating indigenous cultures and the best and worst of our own. Here tribal ritual collides with Greek theatre; masked dancers with roving classicists; poets and pop stars with missionary-explorers; hippies and kleptocrats with long-suffering peasants. The story is enigmatic but exhilarating, by turns edifying and deeply uncomfortable. But we would do well to examine it: Malawi presents urgent lessons which resonate piercingly in our vexed age of culture wars and identity crisis.