Katie Hickman
Japanese Jumblies
On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey Into a Lost Japan
By Lesley Downer
Jonathan Cape 240pp £12.95 order from our bookshop
One of the principal charms of Lesley Downer’s On the Narrow Road to the Deep North is that it deals with aspects of Japan which are quite outside any of our stereotypical assumptions about the country. (The first of these being that Japan = Tokyo = an overcrowded concrete and neon forest in which it costs hundreds of pounds even to blow your nose). Instead, travelling largely through the remote northern provinces of Japan, Downer discovers a simpler, rural world which most Japanese believe vanished centuries ago.
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
'Has the printed book finally outlived its span?' asks @AdamCSDouglas. 'If so, how long can the rare book trade continue? And how much longer can we keep flying in fat-bellied jets to gather in some foreign land to exhibit our wares?'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/how-long-can-we-keep-doing-this
'The capital is revealed as a frightening, roiling place of disease and debauchery, the heads of traitors displayed on spikes, the sky leaden with fumes and fog.'
@MirandaFrance1 on Maggie O'Farrell's new plague-era novel, 'Hamnet'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/love-in-the-time-of-plague-2
I thoroughly enjoyed @MyBiggestLuke’s deliciously dark and funny new novel THEFT. My piece for @Lit_Review:
https://literaryreview.co.uk/on-deaf-ears
@andothertweets @stefantobler