| Vendor | |
|---|---|
|
Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher |
| Original language | |
| English | |
| Categories | |
THE GOOD SHUFU
Finding Love, Self, and Home on the Far Side of the World
A memoir of travel and love, this is a story of building a life amid clashing cultures and identifies, and of traveling to far-flung places only to discover essential truths about self and home.
Shufu: in Japanese it means “housewife,” and it’s the last thing Tracy Slater ever thought she’d call herself. A fiercely independent writer and academic, Tracy had carefully constructed a life she loved in her beloved hometown of Boston. But everything is upended when she falls head over heels for the most unlikely mate: a Japanese businessman based in Osaka who barely speaks her language.
Deciding to give fate a chance, Tracy makes a leap of faith and builds a bi-continental marriage filled with contradictions and dissonance, but also strange moments of enlightenment and joy. In Japan, Tracy’s life is marked by difficulties small and large. She is unable to order food from a menu that lacks pictures, or bank on her own. When she begins to learn the Japanese language, she finds it’s inextricably connected with nuanced cultural factors that would take a lifetime to absorb. (e.g., “The word for ‘husband’ changes depending on whether you are talking about your own spouse to a family member or stranger, about a stranger’s spouse in a formal setting, or about a stranger’s spouse in a casual situation. And that’s just the nouns.”) Finally, when she longs for a child, Tracy undergoes multiple fertility treatments and pregnancy losses, all in a language and culture she rarely understands.
And yet, despite the challenges, Tracy is sustained by her husband Toru’s quiet love. “I love you first in world and always will,” he says, and somehow this feels more like “home” than anything ever has. Steadily and surely, Tracy fills her life in Japan with meaningful connections, a loving marriage, and wonder at her adopted country, a place that will never feel natural or easy, but which provides endless opportunities for growth, insight, and humor. Her quest for motherhood has a happy ending as well: In February 2014, at the age of 46, Tracy gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
THE GOOD SHUFU is a story of the life least expected: messy, overwhelming, and deeply enriching in its complications.
Tracy Slater is the founder of Four Stories, a global literary series in Boston, Osaka, and Tokyo, for which she was awarded the PEN New England’s Friend to Writers Award in 2008. An essay on her bi-continental life was published in Best Women’s Travel Writing 2008, and her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, The Chronicle Review, and The New York Times Motherlode blog.
Deciding to give fate a chance, Tracy makes a leap of faith and builds a bi-continental marriage filled with contradictions and dissonance, but also strange moments of enlightenment and joy. In Japan, Tracy’s life is marked by difficulties small and large. She is unable to order food from a menu that lacks pictures, or bank on her own. When she begins to learn the Japanese language, she finds it’s inextricably connected with nuanced cultural factors that would take a lifetime to absorb. (e.g., “The word for ‘husband’ changes depending on whether you are talking about your own spouse to a family member or stranger, about a stranger’s spouse in a formal setting, or about a stranger’s spouse in a casual situation. And that’s just the nouns.”) Finally, when she longs for a child, Tracy undergoes multiple fertility treatments and pregnancy losses, all in a language and culture she rarely understands.
And yet, despite the challenges, Tracy is sustained by her husband Toru’s quiet love. “I love you first in world and always will,” he says, and somehow this feels more like “home” than anything ever has. Steadily and surely, Tracy fills her life in Japan with meaningful connections, a loving marriage, and wonder at her adopted country, a place that will never feel natural or easy, but which provides endless opportunities for growth, insight, and humor. Her quest for motherhood has a happy ending as well: In February 2014, at the age of 46, Tracy gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
THE GOOD SHUFU is a story of the life least expected: messy, overwhelming, and deeply enriching in its complications.
Tracy Slater is the founder of Four Stories, a global literary series in Boston, Osaka, and Tokyo, for which she was awarded the PEN New England’s Friend to Writers Award in 2008. An essay on her bi-continental life was published in Best Women’s Travel Writing 2008, and her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, The Chronicle Review, and The New York Times Motherlode blog.
| Available products |
|---|
|
Book
Published 2015-06-30 by Putnam |
|
Book
Published 2015-06-30 by Putnam |