Mail Online

BEST BOOKS ON...

JAPAN

Patricia Nicol

I HAVE such fond memories of the London Olympics. The oddity of returning from holiday to find not the usual shifty-looking youths at my local railway station in SouthEast London, but helpful ‘games makers’ offering directions. Looking up from pushing my one-year-old on a swing in Greenwich Park to see a magnificent thoroughbred doing horse trials 200 metres away. The joyous atmosphere at the Olympic events we attended.

I do not just have happy memories, I have gratitude. At least twice a week I swim at an outdoor pool rescued from dereliction as an Olympic legacy project.

I feel desperately sorry for the Japanese, and especially the residents of Tokyo, that they will not get to experience their Olympics as spectators, or welcome tourists.

The Cat And The City by Nick Bradley is a captivating book of 15 contemporary Tokyo stories, all interconnected by a stray calico cat, who appears, at least fleetingly, in each one. The book’s British author spent ten years living in Japan and utilises storytelling forms popular there, such as manga and haiku.

The book came out last year, and an added poignancy comes from how often characters reference the city’s preparations for the Games.

For the past 20 years, the star of Japanese fiction, in English translation, has been Haruki Murakami, whose hits include Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and his excellent non-fiction meditation on long-distance running, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

But a gigantic recent international hit has been the deadpan Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, which satirically explores the pressure on shopworker Keiko to bow to societal expectations and be in a relationship.

Tokyo under American occupation, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, is the subject of Yorkshireborn author David Peace’s trilogy of historic crime novels, which has just concluded with Tokyo Redux.

Tourists are banned from the Tokyo Olympics, but these novels should allow you to explore Japan and its buzzing capital from home.

INSPIRE

en-gb

2021-07-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://mailonline.pressreader.com/article/282432762183812

dmg media (UK)