Four Seasons in Japan: The new novel from the author of The Cat and The City

Description

A gorgeously crafted book within a book about literature, identity and what it is to belong by the much-loved author of The Cat and The City. Flo is sick of Tokyo. She is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up, and she's in a relationship that's run its course. That's until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a drunken passenger on the Tokyo Subway. She starts to read... SOUND OF WATER Kyo has failed his university entrance exams, split up with his girlfriend and is sent by his busy mother to a cram school in Onomichi, a small coastal town where he will stay with his grandmother, Ayako. Ayako is a fierce and strict old lady, who runs a coffee shop in town, is missing fingers, and won't talk about the past, or particularly what Kyo really wants to know- who his father was, and why he died by suicide when Kyo was only two. Following a year in Kyo and Ayako's lives, through the changing seasons in rural Japan, Sound of Water is an intergenerational story of family, relationships, creativity and how we overcome and live with failure in life. ...quickly, Flo realises that she needs to venture outside the pages of the book to track down its illusive author. And, as her two protagonists reveal themselves to have more in common with her life than first meets the eye, the lines between text and translator converge. Her journey is just beginning.

Nick Bradley holds a PhD from UEA focussing on the figure of the cat in Japanese literature. He lived in Japan for a decade, but currently teaches on the Creative Writing master's programme at the University of Cambridge. His debut novel, The Cat and The City, was published in 2020.

Nick Bradley's ingenious choreography of a constantly moving city, is touching, surprising and sometimes heartbreaking * Guardian, on THE CAT AND THE CITY * The key pleasure of reading this book is its sprightly vigour - cool but not hipsterish, ambitious but not pretentious - that evokes a similar liveliness in the reader. It makes you feel young again * John Self, The Times, on THE CAT AND THE CITY * I wolfed down these interlocking stories of cats, Tokyo, loneliness and redemption. Congratulations to Nick Bradley on this vibrant and accomplished debut * David Mitchell, on THE CAT AND THE CITY * An ideal tonic for anyone craving far-flung adventure * Mail on Sunday, on THE CAT AND THE CITY * Inventive, beguiling * Sunday Times, on THE CAT AND THE CITY *