The Japanese Lover
ABOUT
THE BOOK
In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis and the world goes to war, young Alma Belasco’s parents send her overseas to live with an aunt and uncle in their opulent San Francisco mansion. There she meets Ichimei Fukuda, the son of the family’s Japanese gardener, and between them a tender love blossoms, but following Pearl Harbor the two are cruelly pulled apart. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love they are forever forced to hide from the world.
Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to reconcile her own troubled past, meets the older woman and her grandson, Seth, at Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, and learn about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Amanda
Hopkinson
Amanda Hopkinson is an academic, writer and literary translator. Her first biography was of the Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (Virago 1988). Since then she has published monographs of the Latin American photographers Martin Chambi (Phaidon 2000) and Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Phaidon 2002) and written a history of Latin American photography (Reaktion forthcoming). She has edited and contributed to histories and encyclopaedias of photography [Gale Research] and of Latin American culture (Routledge 2000; 2019 & 2020). She has curated exhibitions and written/edited catalogues for The Photographers’ Gallery (work by Latin American women photographers) and the Barbican (work by Brazilian baiano photographers) among other galleries. She reviews photographic books exhibitions and contributes photographers’ obituaries to The Guardian and The Times newspapers and to BBC Radio.
In addition, the fascination with Latin American/Iberian culture has resulted in over 50 translations of authors including Isabel Allende; Elena Poniatowska; José Saramago and anthologies of both poetry [the first, Lovers and Comrades by Central American poet/activists, Women’s Press, 1989] and prose (most recently Lisbon Tales (OUP 2020)).
Amanda Hopkinson is an academic, writer and literary translator. Her first biography was of the Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (Virago 1988). Since then she has published monographs of the Latin American photographers Martin Chambi (Phaidon 2000) and Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Phaidon 2002) and written a history of Latin American photography (Reaktion forthcoming). She has edited and contributed to histories and encyclopaedias of photography [Gale Research] and of Latin American culture (Routledge 2000; 2019 & 2020). She has curated exhibitions and written/edited catalogues for The Photographers’ Gallery (work by Latin American women photographers) and the Barbican (work by Brazilian baiano photographers) among other galleries. She reviews photographic books exhibitions and contributes photographers’ obituaries to The Guardian and The Times newspapers and to BBC Radio.
In addition, the fascination with Latin American/Iberian culture has resulted in over 50 translations of authors including Isabel Allende; Elena Poniatowska; José Saramago and anthologies of both poetry [the first, Lovers and Comrades by Central American poet/activists, Women’s Press, 1989] and prose (most recently Lisbon Tales (OUP 2020)).
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Nick
Caistor
Nick Caistor is a translator, journalist, and author of non-fiction books. He has translated some forty books from Spanish and Portuguese, including those by Paulo Coelho, Eduardo Mendoza, Juan Marsé, and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, and has twice been awarded the Valle-Inclán prize for Spanish translation. He has presented and produced many programs on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service and is a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian.
Nick Caistor is a translator, journalist, and author of non-fiction books. He has translated some forty books from Spanish and Portuguese, including those by Paulo Coelho, Eduardo Mendoza, Juan Marsé, and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, and has twice been awarded the Valle-Inclán prize for Spanish translation. He has presented and produced many programs on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service and is a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
A wonderful love story which spans decades. Written with great attention to historical detail, and with empathy and understanding of her strong, complex characters, with major themes of ageing, loss, love and death.
Allende was awarded the Book of Gold by the Uruguayan Book Chamber, the Carl Sandburg Prize in 2013, the Hans Christian Anderson Prize for Literature in 2011, and the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 2010. Her work has been translated into German, French and Catalan.