Place of Shells by Mai Ishizawa (2025, Proof Paperback)

The Place of Shells: 'An extraordinary, beautiful novel' Sarah Bernstein, Booker-shortlisted author of Study for Obedience Hardcover \u2013 17 July 2025by Mai Ishizawa (Author), Polly Barton (Translator)\n\nWINNER OF THE AKUTAGAWA PRIZE\n\n'A hypnotic dissection of memory, trauma and belonging'\nNew Statesman\n\n'This attempt to imprint upon humanity the experiences of the 2011 T\u014Dhoku earthquake and tsunami in a way that only a novel can achieve deserves to be highly esteemed'\nYoko Ogawa, author of The Memory Police\n\n'Here we find a form of language that attempts to venture, dancing, into a past enveloped in silence'\nYoko Tawada, author of The Last Children of Tokyo\n\n'An eerie, shimmering fever dream . . . strange and beautiful'\nJenny Mustard, author of Okay Days\n\nIn the summer of 2020, as Germany slowly emerges from lockdown, a young Japanese woman studying in G\u00F6ttingen waits at the train station to meet an old friend. Nomiy.