Abstract

By Yoko Tawada, an author who opens up world literature,
The first publication of the Asahi Shimbun series novel.

Misa lives alone in Berlin. Her neighbor ”M” was born in East Prussia and moved to Germany before the end of the war. While listening to how the Prussians came, Misa is drawn into the history of Germany and Japan before and after World War II, thinking about expulsion from the land, the number of wartime deaths, countries and ethnic groups, and borders.
One day, ”M" invited Misa to go to a Tai Chi school. Together with Alena, a Russian millionaire, Becker, a sweets maker, and Rosalinde, an English teacher, she learns the taijiquan technique "White Crane Ryowing", which raises her right arm powerfully like a crane spreading its wings.
Misa translates Kleist's short story "The Beggar of Locarno". Why did this German writer focus on a homeless old woman? Hamlet, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Narayama Bushitsu, rereading world masterpieces from a woman's point of view...

Author’s Information

Born in Tokyo in 1960. After graduating from Waseda University, moved to Germany and published novels and poems in both Japanese and German. In 1993, he received the Akutagawa Prize for "Inu-mukoiri". In 2011, he won the Noma Literature Award for "Snow Trainee". 2016, German Kleist Prize. In 2018, he received the National Book Award in the Translated Literature category for "Kontoushi". Received the Asahi Prize in 2020.