G!VOICE Recommend:
“’Nānā’ is the common language in Kamusari village, which means slowing things down. It is a village isolated from the world and the villagers live a sustainable living with the Nature. The main character is an urban youngster who does not have any direction or goal for the future. After he arrived in the village, he learned to cherish the forest and the importance of respecting nature. He learned that life is like climbing trees, you can only look upwards, not downwards. He gradually found his way living in the woods. This is a book that makes you relax and slow things down. A great book that could rejoin you with the Nature, highly recommended.“
Introduction
Hirano just wants to do trivial works here and there to spend the rest of his life. After the graduation day, under his mother and his teacher’s arrangement, he was sent to Kamusari village in the deep mountain and began a lumbering life that he did not even think of living. He lived with the honest and simple villagers and began to get used to their Nānā accent and attitude towards life. He worked side by side with a bunch of strong tall men in the woods. Being a lumberjack was tough, but he had morphed from the ‘what the heck is this lumbering gig” attitude and thinking about how to get out of this remote village (where there was only one connecting train per day) to accepting his place and enjoying peace with Nature. Infected by these sincere villagers, he grew to like Kamusari village. And just like that, he finally said his first, “Nānā”.
The author, Shion Miura captured the real emotions of the people living in Kamusari village and the life in the woods in precision. She did a lot of research and even went to remote mountains to survey for the setting of the book. Nānā is a dialect designed just for the Kamusari village, there is not such a language in reality. The backdrop was set in Mie-ken in Kansai area, close to Nara-ken border, therefore the Nānā carries the unique soft spoken twang of Kansai accent and also symbolizes the slow and carefree life-pace in the forest. In an exclusive interview, the author said that “this slow-spoken tone matches with the value that has been sustainably cycled in the woods for a hundred years. This is for people who do not have any thoughts or goals for the future, or even people who feel their lives have lost meanings.”
——Extract from www.books.com.tw
About Author
Shion Miura (1976~ )
Shion Miura is a rising star among young generation of Japanese writers and she is also a constant winners of literary prizes. Her book, Eto Mori won the 135th Naoki Prize. The author has a very fluent flow in her writing and specializes in shaping sharp characters. In the story, she could always capture the youthfulness of the young which is why she is very popular by young readers. This book has been adapted to a radio show, which broadcasts during Youth Adventure period in NHK.
——Extract from www.books.com.tw