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Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus
Original language
English

THE SNOW KIMONO

Mark Henshaw

Paris, 1989. Recently retired police inspector Auguste Jovert receives a letter from a woman who claims to be his daughter. Two days later, a stranger knocks on his door. His name is Tadashi Omura, a former law professor. He tells Jovert stories about his life, and about a man named Katsuo Ikeda whom he met when they were both children and who later became a successful writer.

Set in France, Japan and Algeria, THE SNOW KIMONO is a jigsaw puzzle of a book. The stories that Omura and Jovert tell each other fit together in unpredictable ways. Each new story changes the possibilities of what might happen next. Little by little we glimpse how these men have lied to themselves and to each other. These lies are about to catch up with them.

THE SNOW KIMONO is the work of a natural storyteller. It's an intricately plotted novel that is both a psychological thriller and an unforgettable meditation on love and loss, on memory and its deceptions.

THE SNOW KIMONO is Mark's second novel under his own name. Twenty-five years ago he published the highly acclaimed OUT OF THE LINE OF FIRE, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, the Adelaide Festival Prize and the Age Book of the Year Award.

DER SCHNEEKIMONO
Deutsch von Ursula Graefe
[HC Insel 10/16]
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Published 2014-08-01 by Text Publishing

Comments

Henshaw's prose [is] luminous and crisp, like the snowy countryside of Japan or the barren lanes of Algiers... When I finished The Snow Kimono, I raised my head, vaguely surprised that I was at home, in familiar surrounds, and it was still daylight outside. I turned straight back to page one and began again. Read more...

Henshaw's effects are consistently magical...[He] has perfected a particular technique for the scenes set in Japan, one we might call leisurely lyricism One of Henshaw's creations notes that: “Memory is a savage editor. It cuts time's throat.” That, however, is not quite the practice adopted in this novel. Here, memory stimulates, time becomes more fluid, the past and the present scrape against each other, and emotions (as well as, occasionally, the truth) are refined and distilled.

NSW Premier's Literary Award, Christina Stead Award for Fiction, 2015. Read more...

UK/Commonwealth: Tinder Press; France: Christian Bourgois;

From Algiers to Tokyo, Henshaw creates indelible images. Just as the two men get caught up in one another's stories, so too can the reader almost feel the cold on the road down a snowy mountain in Japan or smell the smoke-stained remains of a bombed-out house on the Mediterranean...Henshaw has written an intriguing contemplation on the nature of storytelling itself. -- Booklist Read more...

Henshaw... [has] written a deep reflection on life, memory, love and loss - which indeed sounds platitudinous- encased in an extremely clever structure that traps the reader for the duration of the novel. This Henshaw does not just through intricate plotting but also with writing that is astoundingly evocative.. -- Peter Gordon in The Asian Review of Books Read more...

With agile intelligence, with boldness in what he has imagined and tight control over how it is developed, Henshaw has announced triumphantly that he is no longer a ghost on the Australian literary scene, but one of its most substantial talents.

Gripping... Like a Japanese puzzle, prized for their infinite solutions and depth of revelation, each chapter builds on the one before, unfolding through levels of story to unpack deeper and deeper truths... Henshaw's ability to combine such cultural and aesthetic diversity is not only an example of what a period of dedicated study can do, but a marker of his ability as a writer. Read more...