The Pine Islands

Description

When Gilbert Silvester, a journeyman lecturer on beard fashions in film, awakes one day from a dream that his wife has cheated on him, he flees - immediately, irrationally, inexplicably - for Japan. In Tokyo he discovers the travel writings of the great Japanese poet Basho. Suddenly, from Gilbert's directionless crisis there emerges a purpose: a pilgrimage in the footsteps of the poet to see the moon rise over the pine islands of Matsushima. Falling into step with another pilgrim - a young Japanese student called Yosa, clutching a copy of The Complete Manual of Suicide - Gilbert travels with Yosa across Basho's disappearing Japan, one in search of his perfect ending and the other the new beginning that will give his life meaning. The Pine Islands is a serene, playful, profoundly moving story of the transformations we seek and the ones we find along the way.

Marion Poschmann was born in Essen in 1969. A prize-winning poet and novelist, she has won both of Germany's premier poetry prizes and the Berlin Prize for Literature. Poschmann has been shortlisted for the German Book Prize on three occasions and won the 2013 Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize.

Miraculous ... Poschmann has all the air of uncovered greatness -- John Self * Guardian * A remarkably tender exploration of modern life ... Poschmann reveals the still beauty to be found in life beneath a mask of black humour. -- Mia Colleran * Irish Times * A blackly funny novel, in which the rhythms of modern life slowly give way to the restorative poetry of the natural world. -- Claire Allfree * Daily Mail * If you've ever wondered how a writer of imagination and wit might blend Murakami-style mysticism with black-humoured realism, this diverting novel will tell you everything you need to know. * Big Issue * Funny, strange and sad ... a refreshing book for the curious reader * Herald * Really fascinating ... on the face of it a simple story with a sort of surreality to it, a playfulness as well ... interesting, left-field ... we absolutely loved it ... a comic confrontation with mortality -- Bettany Hughes, chair of the 2019 Man Booker International Prize judges Absurdly delightful * Straits Times * A masterpiece * Die Zeit * Clever, poetic, funny * Tagesspiegel * A dazzling little novel * Suddeutsche Zeitung * Profoundly serene, flawlessly beautiful * TAZ * Ravishingly funny * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung * Simply wonderful * Stern *