Tomoka Shibasaki, whose book “Spring Garden” (Haru no Niwa) was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 2014, will speak on Wednesday, Dec. 4, from 7 p.m. at the Japan Foundation Los Angeles, 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 100, Los Angeles.
Shibasaki often explores the various iterations of a single place throughout its existence through her storytelling. She and UCLA Professor Michael Emmerich will discuss her nuanced approach to interweaving human geography with a site’s history.
She will also be reading from her forthcoming collection (in early 2025) “A Hundred Years and a Day.”
“Spring Garden” was translated by Polly Barton and has been published by several presses, most recently Pushkin Press in 2024.
Taro is divorced, unhappy in his job, and living in a half-empty building that is about to be torn down. One summer morning, he sees a fellow resident climbing over the wall to the next-door house. She says she is called Nishi, and invites herself inside. It emerges that Nishi’s fascination with this pale blue house began in her student days 20 years before, and came from a book of photos called “Spring Garden” from decades earlier.
As the summer draws to a close, Nishi, Taro and the new family that has moved into the old house come together and drift apart, leaving the reader with a sense of their whole life in just a few vivid snapshots
Shibasaki will be available to sign books after the event. You may bring copies from home or purchase them from on-site vendor Chevalier’s Books.
Presented as part of the JFLA Literary series in partnership with the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities.
Free but registration required. Go to: https://www.jflalc.org/event-details.php/235/an-evening-chat-with-author-tomoka-shibasaki
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