Territory of Light

Product Description

Territory of Light (1979) is the luminous story of a young woman, living alone in Tokyo with her three-year-old daughter. Its twelve, stand-alone fragments follow the first year of the narrator's separation from her husband. The novel is full of light, sometimes comforting and sometimes dangerous- sunlight streaming through windows, dappled light in the park, distant fireworks, dazzling floodwater, desaturated streetlamps and mysterious explosions. The seemingly artless prose is beautifully patterned- the cumulative effect is disarmingly powerful and bright after-images remain in your mind for a long time afterwards.Territory of Light (1979) is the luminous story of a young woman, living alone in Tokyo with her three-year-old daughter. Its twelve, stand-alone fragments follow the first year of the narrator's separation from her husband. The novel is full of light, sometimes comforting and sometimes dangerous- sunlight streaming through windows, dappled light in the park, distant fireworks, dazzling floodwater, desaturated streetlamps and mysterious explosions. The seemingly artless prose is beautifully patterned- the cumulative effect is disarmingly powerful and bright after-images remain in your mind for a long time afterwards.
Satoko Tsushima was born in Tokyo in 1947, the daughter of the novelist Osamu Dazai, who took his own life when she was one year old. Better known by her pen name Yuko Tsushima, her prolific literary career began with her first collection of short stories, Shaniku-sai (Carnival), which she published at the age of 24. She won many awards, including the Izumi Kyoka Prize for Literature (1977), the Kawabata Prize (1983) and the Tanizaki Prise (1998). She died in 2016.