Sunrise
Erika Kobayashi, Brian Bergstrom (translation)"A remarkable collection." —Kirkus Reviews
A collection of contemplative, lyrical stories examining the visible & invisible consequences of atomic power on Japanese society
Sunrise is a collection of interconnected stories continuing Erika Kobayashi’s examination of the effects of nuclear poweron generations of women. Connecting changes to everyday life to the development of the atomic bomb, Sunrise shows us how the discovery of radioactive power has shaped our history & continues to shape our future.
In the opening, eponymous story “Sunrise,” Yoko, born exactly two years & one day after Nagasaki was decimated, mirrors her life to the development of nuclear power in Japan. In “Precious Stones,” four daughters take their elderly mother to the restorative waters of a radium spring, exchanging tales of immortality. In “Hello...
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Erika Kobayashi was born in 1978 in Tokyo, where she currently lives & works. She creates works that are inspired by things invisible to the eye: time & history, family & memory, & the traces left in places.
Her first novel to be translated into English, Trinity, Trinity, Trinity, translated by Brian Bergstrom & published by Astra House, won the 2022-2023 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes (JUSFC) for the Translation of Japanese Literature.
She was short-listed for the 27th Mishima Yukio Award & the 151st Akutagawa Award in 2014 for her novel Madame Curie to Chōshoku o (Breakfast with Madame Curie), published by Shūeisha.
Brian Bergstrom is a lecturer & translator. His published translations include the collection “We, the Children of Cats” by Tomoyuki Hoshino (PM Press), which was long-listed for the 2013 Best Translated Book Award;