In these two novellas, Kimura Yūsuke explores human and animal life in
northern Japan after the natural and nuclear disasters of March 11,
2011. Kimura inscribes the "Triple Disaster" into a rich regional
tradition of storytelling, incorporating far-flung voices and
experiences to testify to life and the desire to represent it in the
aftermath of calamity.
In Sacred Cesium Ground, a woman from Tokyo travels to volunteer at a
cattle farm known as the "Fortress of Hope," tending irradiated animals
abandoned after the reactor meltdown. The farm closely resembles an
actual ranch that has been widely covered in Japan, and the story's
portrayal of those who stubbornly care for animals in spite of the
danger speaks to the sense of futility and meaningfulness in the wake of
traumatic events. Isa's Deluge depicts a family of fishermen whose
crotchety patriarch draws on old tales of the floods that have plagued
the region to fashion himself as the father of the tsunami. Together,
the novellas present often-unheard voices of one of Japan's peripheral
regions and their anger toward the government and Tokyo for mishandling
and forgetting their part of the country. Kimura's command of dialect
and conversational language is masterfully translated by Doug Slaymaker.
Postapocalyptically surreal yet teeming with life, Kimura's stories will
be a revelation for readers looking for a new perspective on the
disaster's consequences for Japan and on the interrelated meanings of
human and animal lives and deaths.
