Bob's Bullets - Recommendations for recent books on Japan

TOKYO — I MC’d a Book Break recently at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan with author David Joiner, who entertained the crowd with a discussion of his new novel Kanazawa, a captivating tale of life, love and art in one of Japan’s great historic and cultural hubs, published by Berkeley’s Stone Bridge Press. I urge you all to read it.  

The novel is about a cross-cultural marriage between a 36-year-old American man named Emmitt and his Japanese wife Mirai. Emmit wants to put his roots down in the titular city, which he deeply admires and associates with Japan’s cultural past. But these plans collapse when Mirai suddenly pushes for them to move instead to Tokyo, where she is subtly pursuing a career as an ikebana artist. Intrigue ensues and the  secret past of Mirai’s parents is revealed.

Alex Kerr, author of Lost Japan and Dogs and Demons, has called it “a graceful novel of a graceful city.” Roger Pulvers, author of Liv, writes, “The grand old city of Kanazawa, its lush historic environs and rich cultural legacy form the setting of this compelling narrative. Kanazawa weaves an intriguing story of a Japanese family worthy of the best of Japanese literature.”