The Last Children of Tokyo

Description

Yoshiro celebrated his hundredth birthday many years ago, but every morning before work he still goes running in the park with his rent-a-dog. He is one of the many aged-elderly in Japan and he might, he thinks, live forever. Life for Yoshiro isn't as simple as it used to be. Pollution and natural disasters have scarred the face of the Earth, and even common foods are hard to come by. Still, Yoshiro's only real worry is the future of his great-grandson Mumei, who, like other children of his generation, was born frail and grey-haired, old before he was ever young. As daily life in Tokyo grows harder, a secretive organisation embarks on an audacious plan to find a cure for the children of Japan - might Yoshiro's great-grandson, Mumei, be the key? A dreamlike story of filial love and glimmering hope, The Last Children of Tokyo is a delicate glimpse of our future from one of Japan's most celebrated writers.

Yoko Tawada was born in Tokyo in 1960 and moved to Germany in 1982. She writes in Japanese and German, and her work has been awarded the most prestigious literary prizes in both countries, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Kleist Prize, the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, and the Goethe Medal. She is the author of stories, poems, plays, essays, and novels, including Memoirs of a Polar Bear, published by Portobello Books in 2017.

A mini-epic of eco-terror, family drama and speculative fiction... a book unlike any other * Guardian * An open-hearted fable... Tawada's uber-isolationist neo-Japan is much less cute than Wes Anderson's. It's also much, much funnier * Financial Times * The Last Children of Tokyo has a recessive, lunar beauty... Arresting, with a flickering brilliance -- Parul Sehgal * International New York Times * Unsettling and enchanting, gentle and sharp-edged. Tawada writes beautifully about unbearable things -- Sara Baume, author of * A Line Made by Walking * One of the most thorough and convincingly conceived worlds I have read. The Last Children of Tokyo shows a land tottering on the brink of disaster but it is also a joyful exploration of language, a constantly surprising and exciting romp -- Daisy Johnson, author of * Fen * The Last Children of Tokyo carries us beyond the limits of what is it is to be human, in order to remind us of what we must hold dearest in our conflicted world, our humanity -- Sjon, author of * From the Mouth of the Whale * A convincing world-narrative that weaves together the beliefs of ancient Shintoism and contemporary politics, where transmutation between animals has become the norm -- Fi Churchman * Art Review * Poetic, strange and melancholy, Tawada's nuanced language demonstrates a tenderness and refinement that subtly counterbalances the novella's bleak subject matter... impressive -- Bryan Karetynk * TLS *