Summer at Mount Asama

De: Masashi Matsuie, Margaret Mitsutani - translator

Narrado por: Kevin Shen

Tōru Sakanishi is a recent university graduate who joins a small, prestigious architecture firm founded by Shunsuke Murai, a former student of Frank Lloyd Wright. A sensitive and observant narrator, Sakanishi is captivated by the artistic quality and careful consideration the Murai Office shows to each of its designs. As the sweltering summer months approach, the team migrates from Tokyo to Kita-Asama, a mountain village and artists' colony whose heyday has passed. There, they set out to design the National Library of Modern Literature, competing against a rival firm that snaps up one government project after the next. Over the course of this summer, Sakanishi encounters four remarkable women who change the course of his life.

Beautifully translated by National Book Award–winner Margaret Mitsutani, Summer at Mount Asama is a character-driven story with prose that highlights the natural beauty of Japan, the ingenuity of architecture and the clashing 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

'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)