{"title":"Hiromi Ito","description":"\u003cp\u003eHiromi Ito's work invites readers into a world where everyday life intertwines with the surreal, often exploring themes of nature, identity, and transformation. Her writing, rich with poetic imagery and emotional depth, captures the complexities of human experience through evocative storytelling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith titles like \u003cem\u003eThe Thorn Puller\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eTree Spirits Grass Spirits\u003c\/em\u003e, Ito's books blend elements of general fiction with a deep appreciation for arts and culture, offering reflections that resonate with both intimacy and universality.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-thorn-puller-by-hiromi-ito-9781737625308","title":"The Thorn Puller","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Sakutaro Hagiwara Prize and the Murasaki Shikibu Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIntroducing Hiromi Ito, an award-winning Japanese author who has been compared to Haruki Murakami and Yoko Tawada.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe first novel to appear in English by award-winning author Hiromi Ito explores the absurdities, complexities, and challenges experienced by a woman caring for her two families: her husband and daughters in California and her aging parents in Japan. As the narrator shuttles back and forth between these two starkly different cultures, she creates a powerful and entertaining narrative about what it means to live and die in a globalized society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIto has been described as a 'shaman of poetry' because of her skill in allowing the voices of others to flow through her. Here she enriches her semi-autobiographical novel by channeling myriad voices drawn from Japanese folklore, poetry, literature, and pop culture. The result is a generic chimera—part poetry, part prose, part epic—a unique, transnational, polyvocal mode of storytelling. One throughline is a series of memories associated with the Buddhist bodhisattva Jizo, who helps to remove the 'thorns' of human suffering.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Overflowing and contradictory, worn down with fatigue, yet brimming with energy, \u003cem\u003eThe Thorn Puller\u003c\/em\u003e combines a confessional story of a woman dealing with family commitments in two countries with vibrant excursions into Japanese folklore and history.\"\u003c\/strong\u003e - Richard Medhurst, Nippon.com\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"With ruthless honesty and wicked humor, Ito exposes the frustration and inconvenience of being a caregiver, juxtaposing it with the sorrow of watching a loved one deteriorate.\" - \u003cem\u003eForeword Reviews, starred review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Poet Ito makes her English-language fiction debut with a lyrical account of a woman caught between two cultures and her family's demands...Fans of Japanese literature will enjoy this impressionistic project.\" - \u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Ito's chameleonic prose confronts mortality, cultural conflicts, religious comforts, and waning relationships, embellished with all manner of welcoming, unfiltered, surprisingly humorous honesty about the universally quotidian, from pimple-popping to good sex.\" - Terry Hong, \u003cem\u003eBooklist\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46718479139052,"sku":"9781737625308","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/18326343482806.jpg?v=1754510989"},{"product_id":"tree-spirits-grass-spirits-by-hiromi-ito-9781643621920","title":"Tree Spirits Grass Spirits","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA collected series of intertwined poetic essays written by acclaimed Japanese poet Hiromi Ito – part nature writing, part travelogue, part existential philosophy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWritten between April 2012 and November 2013, \u003ci\u003eTree Spirits Grass Spirits\u003c\/i\u003e adopts a non-linear narrative flow that mimics the growth of plants, and can be read as a companion piece to Ito's beloved poem \u003ci\u003eWild Grass on the Riverbank\u003c\/i\u003e. Rather than the vertiginously violent poetics of the latter, \u003ci\u003eTree Spirits Grass Spirits\u003c\/i\u003e serves as what we might call a phyto-autobiography: a recounting of one's life through the logic of flora.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIto's graciously potent and philosophical prose examines immigration, language, gender, care work and death, all through her close (indeed, at times obsessive) attention to plant life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47487724781804,"sku":"9781643621920","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/ad9102554b4ebef2fe49ad2ec3181c0f.jpg?v=1775769881"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/hiromi-ito.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}