Castaways: Two Short Novels

by Masuji Ibuse

Book Overview

In the first novel, castaway John Manjiro travels the world and returns to a secluded island nation on the brink of westernization. The second short novel is about a woman's exile after the political... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 4770017448
• ISBN13: 9784770017444
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Kodansha
• Length: 138 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.4" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

A Japanese odissey

The story of the young illiterate Japanese fisherman who is shipwrecked, rescued by an American ship and eventually brought to understand a totally different culture is based on strict historical fact. However, Castaways is illuminated by Ibuse's poetic sense of detail and delicate humour. The other novella, the tale of a geisha in love with a persecuted would-be modernizer of XIXth century Japan is filled with references which are sometimes unclear to a Western reader, yet conveys a sense of melancoly and romantic devotion.