A mesmerising fable with a difference set in Japan over 1000 years ago
For readers of Alessandro Baricco's Silk, Patrick Süskind's Perfume and Takashi Hiraide's The Guest Cat.
The village of Shimae is thrown into turmoil when master carp-catcher Katsuro suddenly drowns in the murky waters of the Kusagawa River. Who now will carry the precious cargo of carp to the Imperial Palace and preserve the crucial patronage that everyone in the village depends upon?
Step forward Miyuki, Katsuro's grief-struck widow and the only remaining person in the village who knows anything about carp. She alone can undertake the long, perilous journey to the Imperial Palace, balancing the heavy baskets of fish on a pole across her shoulders, and ensure her village's future.
So Miyuki sets off. Along her way she will encounter a host of remarkable characters, from prostitutes and innkeepers, to warlords and priests with evil in mind. She will endure ambushes and disaster, for the villagers are not the only people fixated on the fate of the eight magnificent carp.
But when she reaches the Office of Gardens and Ponds, Miyuki discovers that the trials of her journey are far from over. For in the Imperial City, nothing is quite as it seems, and beneath a veneer of refinement and ritual, there is an impenetrable barrier of politics and snobbery that Miyuki must overcome if she is to return to Shimae.
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[FOLLOWING A LONG CONFINEMENT and strict observance of the eating restrictions associated with bereavement, and after she had polished Katsuro's body with a sacred fabric that was intended to absorb any impurities, Amakusa Miyuki undertook the ritual that would purify her from the stain of her husband's death]***
(@maclehosepress, 2 May 2019, first published January 2017, 320 pages, hardback, copy from @AmazonUK #AmazonVine, translated by Euan Cameron)
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I'd never heard of the author before but I love the cover and the blurb intrigued me. Two very good reasons to read a book in my humble opinion! I loved the cover; it makes you want to read the book and feels pretty good as well. This book is a blend of myth and fantasy. It's beautifully written, just gorgeous. Miyuki is grieving her husband's death in a freak accident and is tasked with carrying on his role of taking carp to the Imperial City. Miyuki isn't very happy with this but she understands her duty and is determined not to fail. She wants to succeed and honour her husband. She also knows if any of the carp are rejected it will bring humiliation onto her entire village. So no pressure then! As you can imagine, Miyuki's long journey is plagued with challenges and trials that seem determined to make her fail. When she reaches the Imperial City, her challenges have only begun.
