Fiction
The sad years of Kawabata
by Miguel Sardegna
“Kanjis aren’t words, but images, concepts. Unlike our alphabet, you don’t read a kanji, you look at it. The kanji for tree is the drawing of a tree. The Japanese don’t read the word tree, they stare at the tree”, Japanese literature professor Facundo explains. Days ago, an unknown voice told him about the death of his father. Since that moment, Facundo is enveloped by confusion and memories; his mother, his father, death and a pact of silence that carries him into the present.The protagonist of this novel will find in Kawabata a friend and a teacher, who will help him rethink his family history; and in the Japanese culture, the words to find beauty in the most atrocious circumstances.Miguel Sardegna introduces us to the oneiric world of Japan through his avid gaze of knowledge, and through a plot that traps us forever in this wonderful and ancestral culture. “It’s a love letter to literature, an amazing and amazed journey through the universe of Yasunari Kawabata. You will be surprise by the power of the images”.Juan José Millás
