In Search of a Distant Voice

Description

Kasama Tsuneo is an immigration officer in Tokyo, struggling to live a 'normal' life after an event that happened eight years previously, on the other side of the world, in Portland, Oregon. When he is seized one day by a strange emotional fit his life threatens to spiral out of control. With his arranged marriage looming, his problems worsen following the emergence of a strange voice - a woman who is trying to contact him, but without ever quite revealing herself. Imbued with a beautiful, melancholy sense of longing, the story becomes a quest narrative in which Tsuneo desperately chases this woman, and the mystery behind what happened eight years earlier. Exploring ideas of sexuality, guilt and identity, Taichi Yamada once again displays his unique storytelling qualities, and uncanny gift for merging the everyday and the surreal.

Taichi Yamada worked at the world-renowned Shochiku film studios until he set out on a highly successful career as a freelance scriptwriter and novelist. Winner of the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize for the best human-interest novel, Strangers is his English-language debut.

"'Yamada is among the best Japanese writers I have read'. Bret Easton Ellis 'Highly recommended'. David Mitchell"