{"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","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/products\/the-thorn-puller-by-hiromi-ito-9781737625308","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}