Summer at Mount Asama

De: Masashi Matsuie, Margaret Mitsutani - translator

Narrado por: Kevin Shen

The Japanese novel comes of age in this gripping story of love, art and life as a group of architects competes to design the new National Library of Modern Literature in Tokyo.

In 1980s Japan, newly-graduated Tōru Sakanishi joins a small, prestigious architecture firm founded by a former student of Frank Lloyd Wright. As the sweltering summer months approach, the team migrates from the bustling centre of Tokyo to the beautiful rural surroundings of Mount Asama, where several love stories are woven together and Sakanishi encounters four remarkable women who change the course of his life.

From honouring ancestors to illustrating the complexities of the living, Summer at Mount Asama is a prize-winning novel beautifully translated by National Book Award winner Margaret Mitsutani, offering a moving and elegant portrait of the clash of modernity and tradition.

©2012 First published in Japanese as 火山のふもとで (Kazan no fumoto de) in by Shinchosha Publishing Co. Ltd. English translation copyright Margaret Mitsutani 2025. This English edition is published by arrangement with the author in care of the Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc. Tokyo (P)2025 Bolinda Publishing

Reseñas de la Crítica

'Matsuie’s Yomiuri Prize for Literature–winning debut examines the influence of Western culture on postwar Japan and the clash of modernity and tradition.' (Library Journal, starred review)

'I fell in love with this beautiful novel.' (Hiromi Kawakami, award-winning author of Strange Weather in Tokyo)

'Like an expertly-crafted wooden chair, the prose sustains the perfect degree of tension.' (Mariko Ozaki)

'Elegantly understated novel of a tenuous love affair in modern Japan ... Packed with ideas about art, life, and love.' (Kirkus Reviews)