Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima Paperback Book 9780241312629

Wonderfully poetic extraordinary freshness a Virginia Woolf quality Margaret DrabbleIt is Spring A young woman left by her husband starts a new life in a Tokyo apartment Territory of Light follows her over the course of a year as she struggles to bring up her twoyearold daughter alone Her new home is filled with light streaming through the windows so bright you have to squint but she finds herself plummeting deeper into darkness becoming unstable untethered As the months come and go and the seasons turn she must confront what she has lost and what she will become At once tender and lacerating luminous and unsettling Territory of Light is a novel of abandonment desire and transformation It was originally published in twelve parts in the Japanese literary monthly Gunzo between 1978 and 1979 each chapter marking the months in real timeThere is something deeply seductive about being drawn into the intimate thoughts of a woman who otherwise would tell them to no one This portrait of an imperfect mother who strives to provide a good life for her child feels painfully relevant Rowan Hisayo Buchanan