Lesley Downer
In the Shadow of Fukushima
Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey
By Marie Mutsuki Mockett
W W Norton 316pp £10.99 order from our bookshop
The earthquake and tsunami in 2011, compounded by radiation contamination, were the most devastating catastrophes to strike Japan since the Second World War. Most cruelly, they hit Tōhoku, the northern part of the main island and the poorest part of the country, home to farmers, fishermen and day labourers.
This is Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s home in Japan. Her mother’s family temple is only thirty miles from the Fukushima Daiichi reactor. Her American father died three years previously and her Japanese grandfather had passed away in January 2011; after the earthquake, her grandfather’s bones could not be buried because radiation levels were too high.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'To me, Elmore Leonard is as comforting in extremity as Pym, and as safe, in the last resort, as Wodehouse. The guys with the best lines are going to come out the other side; the dumb fucks are going to get it in the head or chest.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-spoonful-of-elmore
'As we read, we know that in a short time the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and colour television will sweep that age over the balustrade and into the sea, but for now everyone is happy.'
Simon Baker is charmed by Graham Swift's new novel, 'Here We Are'.
http://ow.ly/uDL050ylh80
'As science moves forward ... are we entering an era where sex is for leisure and IVF is for creating the perfect child?'
@MGilmore121 takes a look at the future of IVF in her review of @RobertKlitzman's 'Designing Babies'.
http://ow.ly/xuJY50ybNJa