قصة الكتاب :
Bungeishunjū, 2010. 471 pp. ¥1,619. ISBN 978-4-16-328950-2.
Originally serialized in the Sankei Shimbun Osaka evening ed.,
2008–9.
Kakuta Mitsuyo
Born in 1967. Won the Fujin Kōron Literary Prize in 2003 for Kūchū
teien [A Midair Garden]. Also won the Naoki Prize in 2005 for
Taigan no kanojo [trans. Woman on the Other Shore] and the Chūōkōron
Bungei Prize in 2007 for Yōkame no semi [trans. The Eighth
Day]. Tsurī hausu won the Itō Sei Literary Prize in 2011. Other
works include Pinku basu [Pink Bus], Kuma-chan [Mr. Bear], and
Hisoyaka na hanazono [Quiet Flower Garden].

Kakuta Mitsuyo, one of the most popular women novelists active in Japan today,
has been remarkably prolific in recent years. In the latter half of 2010 she came
out with three books in close succession: Hisoyaka na hanazono [Quiet Flower
Garden], about the fate of children born through in vitro fertilization; Nakushita
mono tachi no kuni [The Land of the Lost], a series of short stories depicting the
growth of one woman with fantastic imagination and rich lyricism; and Tsurī
hausu. Astonishingly, all three books, while dealing with vastly different subjects,
are masterful works of fiction that transcend genre, combining literary insight into
the human heart with highly entertaining narratives.
Set in Tokyo in the late 1990s, Tsurī hausu traces the history of an ordinary
Japanese family running a Chinese restaurant. A family chronicle spanning three
generations unfolds against the backdrop of modern Japanese history—from the
grandparents, who emigrated from Japan to Manchuria in the mid-1930s; to the
parents, members of the generation involved in the campus unrest of the late
1960s; and finally to the children, who struggle to make sense of their lives amid
such apocalyptic events as a massive terrorist attack by a Japanese cult and a major
earthquake.
As a historical novel written from a sweeping perspective, this is a new departure
for Kakuta, who has tended to focus more narrowly on interpersonal relations
in contemporary society. As such, it is an ambitious and noteworthy work.
(NM)