Masashi Matsuie The Summer House recensie, review en informatie over de inhoud van de Japanse roman. Op 10 juni 2025 verschijnt bij Other Press de Engelse vertaling van de roman uit 2012, Kazan no fumuto de, van de uit Japan afkomstige schrijver Masashi Matsuie. Hier lees je informatie over de inhoud van het boek, de auteur en over de uitgave.
Masashi Matsuie The Summer House recensie en review
- “Matsuie’s Yomiuri Prize for Literature–winning debut examines the influence of Western culture on postwar Japan and the clash of modernity and tradition.” (Library Journal)
- “Elegantly understated…Matsuie, renowned as an editor (of Haruki Murakami, among other writers) before becoming an author, delivers a simple but graceful tale that’s full of intriguing asides on architecture…A novel packed with ideas about art, life, and love.” (Kirkus Reviews)
The Summer House
- Auteur: Masashi Matsuie (Japan)
- Soort boek: Japanse roman
- Origineel: Kazan no fumuto de (2012)
- Engelse vertaling: Margaret Mitsutani
- Uitgever: Other Press
- Verschijnt: 17 juni 2025
- Omvang: 400 pagina’s
- Uitgave: paperback / ebook
- Yomiuri Prize for Literature 2012
- Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol
Flaptekst van de roman van de Japanse schrijver Masashi Matsuie
This prize-winning debut novel offers a compelling, insightful portrait of modern Japan through a group of architects competing to design a major new building in Tokyo.
Tōru Sakanishi is a recent university graduate who joins the prestigious Murai Office, a small architecture firm founded by Shunsuke Murai, former student of Frank Lloyd Wright. A sensitive and observant narrator, Sakanishi is captivated by the artistic quality and careful consideration the Murai Office shows to each of its designs.
As the sweltering summer months approach, the Murai Office migrates from Tokyo to Kita-Asama, a mountain village and artists’ colony whose heyday has passed. There, this small team of architects, including two women who Sakanishi is clumsily attracted to, set out to design the National Library of Modern Literature, competing against a rival firm that snaps up one government project after the next.
Beautifully translated by National Book Award–winner Margaret Mitsutani, The Summer House is a character-driven story with prose that highlights the natural beauty of Japan, the ingenuity of architecture, and the clashing of modernity and tradition.
Masashi Matsuie was born in 1958. He began his literary career as a fiction editor for the Shinchosha Publishing Company, where he worked with writers such as Yoko Ogawa, Banana Yoshimoto, and Haruki Murakami and launched Shincho Crest Books, an imprint specializing in translations of foreign works. His debut novel, The Summer House, received the Yomiuri Prize for Literature, an award that normally goes to seasoned authors who are well along in their careers.
