Book set in Karuizawa, Japan (among other localities). Reviewed on 2020/11: https://www.instagram.com/p/CHVKsT_ggPE/
Is the war really over when one side wins? The history books, the counting of dead people and the other half celebrating in the streets will make you believe that it does. #thecaketreeintheruins by #akiyukinosaka is here to tell us otherwise. It’s palpable in the book that we need both that hope that something has ended in order to move forward and also the devastating destruction from where to begin anew. What if we instead stopped for a second the ever-turning roulette and reflected on what just happened? #nosaka goes exactly there. All the #shortstories in this tiny collection are suspended in time on one specific day: #15august1945 lived over and over again. Nosaka also wants to turn the spotlight on the #japanese people, on human beings and question us all through his allegories and magical writing. As in real life, these tales fail to clearly define a boundary between them and us, the victorious and the vanquished. Was all this suffering and trauma really necessary? What to do with all the death and acknowledge what’s and who’s never coming back? Has the war ended for those who still grief? #highlyrecommended #japaneseliterature #pushkinpress #karuizawa #ginnytapleytakemori #野坂 昭如 #戦争童話集 #wwii #generationoftheashes #fables
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