Description

By (author) Inoue, Yasushi; Translated by Emmerich Michael

”Inoue wrote compassionately, but without a hint of sentimentality” TLS

”Inoue writes hand-in-hand with Death, with a finger on the Trigger” Lire

A lover, her daughter and an abandoned wife: three women write letters revealing the tragic aftermath of a forbidden love affair. Saiko is beautiful, sophisticated – and disloyal to her cousin and closest friend. Midori, forsaken by her husband, takes a silent vengeance. And Shoko, Saiko”s daughter, is left to make sense of family secrets.

In this masterpiece of mid-century Japanese fiction, Inoue weaves together conflicting perspectives to tell a single story of love, death, truth and longing.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Michael Emmerich.

Yasushi Inoue (1907-1991) worked as a journalist and literary editor for many years, beginning his prolific career as an author in 1949 with the novel Bullfight. He went on to publish fifty novels and 150 short stories, both historical and contemporary, becoming one of Japan”s major literary figures. In 1976 Inoue was presented with the Order of Culture, the highest honour granted for artistic merit in Japan.

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Two graceful new translations [of The Hunting Gun and Life of a Counterfeiter] should help expand [Inoue”s] audience in English . . . These elegant new editions of Inoue”s work are in keeping with his masterfully understated prose

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A modern Japanese master… Inoue”s humane and searching world view is there to be explored

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Such is his empathy at times that he transforms the study of human nature into profound art… [he] never wastes words. He knows how to make the smallest detail speak volumes… outstanding

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Three intertwined voices, three broken lives and the same bitterness underlie this cruel, cold, destructive and implacable narrative. Inoue writes hand-in-hand with Death, with a finger on the trigger

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Concise and artful

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Both of these novellas are delightfully reminiscent of the works of Ryunosuke Akutagawa… Inoue and Akutagawa were both intellectuals who managed to restrain over-intellectualisation in their writings. They wrote compassionately, but without a hint of sentimentality

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Miraculous… [a] poignant cautionary tale

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Delicate and powerful… a haunting, sensitive meditation on memory as well as a wonderful introduction to a master sorely underappreciated in the West, Music and Literature. The Hunting Gun retains a timeless and universal relevance, reflecting on the delicate balance that truth, love and death play in all human relationships… timeless, elegiac and masterful

Review quote:
Each image leaves you wondering if the characters will turn around. Similarly, reading each letter is like watching the back of someone close to you, wondering if they”ll turn toward you, or move further away

Biographical note:
YASUSHI INOUE (1907-1991) worked as a journalist and literary editor for many years, beginning his prolific career as an author in 1949 with the novel Bullfight. He went on to publish fifty novels and 150 short stories, both historical and contemporary, becoming one of Japan”s major literary figures. In 1976 Inoue was presented with the Order of Culture, the highest honour granted for artistic merit in Japan.MICHAEL EMMERICH (b. 1975) is a translator, editor and assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His many translations include works by Yasunari Kawabata, Genichiro Takahashi and Banana Yoshimoto.

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