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The Only Gaijin in the Village
In 2016 Scottish writer Iain Maloney and his Japanese wife Minori moved to a village in rural Japan. This is the story of his attempt to fit in, be accepted and fulfil his duties as a member of the community, despite being the only foreigner in the village. Even after more than a decade living in Japan and learning the language, life in the countryside was a culture shock. Due to increasing numbers of young people moving to the cities in search of work, there are fewer rural residents under the retirement age – and they have two things in abundance: time and curiosity. Iain's attempts at amateur farming, basic gardening and DIY are conducted under the watchful eye of his neighbours and wife. But curtain twitching is the least of his problems. The threat of potential missile strikes and earthquakes is nothing compared to the venomous snakes, terrifying centipedes and bees the size of small birds that stalk Iain's garden. Told with self-deprecating humour, this memoir gives a fascinating insight into a side of Japan rarely seen and affirms the positive benefits of immigration for the individual and the community. It's not always easy being the only gaijin in the village.
The Waves Burn Bright
In 1988 the Piper Alpha oil platform off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland exploded, killing 167 men. The Waves Burn Bright is a deeply effecting, sensitive exploration of its devastating aftermath on one family. Carrie Fraser is 16 when the disaster occurs, her father Marcus one of the survivors. As the narrative moves between past and present the trauma blows open existing fractures, tearing the family apart. In adulthood and after many years living abroad, Carrie, now a respected volcanologist, is returning to Aberdeen to deliver a controversial academic paper. Carrie and her father are estranged, partly due to his post-traumatic stress and related alcoholism, a legacy of Piper Alpha. Will ...
First Time Solo
A distinctive debut novel by a mature new voice sheds light on a previously neglected aspect of war, its casualties and victims, and those forces unleashed by a conflict that changed the world forever It's 1943 and Jack Devine, a farmer's son from the rural North of Scotland, is finally called up to the RAF. Jack dreams of becoming a pilot, breaking hearts, and returning home a hero. The realities of training are very different, with boredom, bullying, and casual violence the norm. Drawn together by a love of jazz music, Jack makes friends with Terry, a worldly Welshman dabbling in the black market; Joe, a fellow Scot and aggressive anti-fascist; and the public school educated Clive. The gro...
Scattered All Over the Earth
*From the author of The Last Children of Tokyo* A mind-expanding, cheerfully dystopian novel about friendship, difference and what it means to belong, by a National Book Award-winning novelist. Welcome to the not-too-distant future. Japan, having vanished into the sea, is now remembered as 'the land of sushi'. Hiruko, a former citizen and a climate refugee herself, has a job teaching immigrant children in Denmark with her invented language Panska (Pan-Scandinavian): 'homemade language. no country to stay in. three countries I experienced. no time to learn three different languages. might mix up. insufficient space in brain. so made new language. homemade language most Scandinavian people und...
A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding
When a badly scarred man knocks on the door of Amaterasu Takahashi's retirement home and says that he is her grandson, she doesn't believe him. She knows her grandson, and her daughter, died the day the Americans dropped the atomic bomb; she searched the ruined city for weeks. Amaterasu has buried the memories of that day and the years leading up to it. Supressing her feelings was something she became an expert at during the long sake-pouring nights she worked in a hostess bar. But why does she hold the man her daughter loved in such contempt? And if you've become adept at lying, can you still recognise when someone is telling the truth?
Mountain Retreats
Mountain Retreats, Maloney's third poetry collection, consists of two poetic cycles in the tradition of the great climbing poets, Gary Snyder and Kenneth Rexroth. Where the sky begins ranges over peaks and valleys exploring the connections between nature and health as the narrative voice retreats into the Japanese Alps while facing an unnamed illness. All of this has happened before uses the mechanisms of the rock cycle - weathering and erosion - to come to terms with mortality. Drawing on an array of imagery and references, these poems strike out in new directions before looping back on themselves, rising and falling like mountain trails, all the while seeking clarity above the trees, where the sky begins.
River of Ink
All Asanka knows is poetry. From his humble village beginnings in the great island kingdom of Lanka, he has risen to the prestigious position of court poet and now delights in his life of ease: composing romantic verses for love-struck courtiers, enjoying the confidence of his king and covertly teaching Sarasi, a beautiful and beguiling palace maid, the secrets of his art. But when Kalinga Magha, a ruthless prince with a formidable army, arrives upon Lanka's shores, Asanka's world is changed beyond imagining. Violent, hubristic and unpredictable, Magha usurps the throne, laying waste to all who stand in his way. Under his terrifying rule, nothing in the city is left untouched and, like many ...
Shackleton's Boat Journey
This is the classic account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914-1916 Antarctic expedition. Written by the captain of the Endurance, the ship used by Shackleton on this ill-fated journey, it is a remarkable tale of courage and bravery in the face of extreme odds and a vivid portrait of one of the world's greatest explorers. "A breathtaking story of courage under the most appalling conditions." - Edmund Hillary
Silma Hill
From the author of the Not the Booker short-listed debut novel First Time Solo, come a fastpaced romantic historical thriller. Accusations of witchcraft are sparked by the unearthing of a pagan idol in a remote Highland village and exacerbated by generations-old social divisions. The Reverend Burnett is the unpopular minister at Abdale. Behind the manse lies Silma Hill, which has a circle of ancient standing stones at its summit. Burnett lives with his sixteen year old daughter Fiona who he treats no better than a servant. Old Sangster unearths a pagan icon in the peat beneath Silma Hill and hands it over to Burnett, who plans to write a paper on it for the Historical Antiquities Society in Edinburgh. Hours after finding the relic, Sangster is found dead. Fiona is drawn into accusations of witchcraft, fuelled by hatred of her father. As hysteria in the village builds, will Fiona's father be able to put aside his pride to save his daughter or will she be consumed by the fire of anger, fear and superstition that has enveloped everyone?
Confessions of a Mask
The story of a Japanese boy's development towards a homosexual identity during and after the Second World War. In narrating his progress from an isolated childhood through adolescence to manhood, he exposes his inner life, full of repressed homosexual desires and preoccupations with sadomasochism and death. The enduring power of the novel is in part owing to its themes of fantasy, despair, and alienation, its eloquent voice and its autobiographical nature - the equally enduring fascination with the life and character of one of Japan's most turbulent artists.
