{"title":"Yoko Tawada","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"the-bridegroom-was-a-dog-hardcover","title":"The Bridegroom Was a Dog - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMasterfully turning the rules of folklore and fable on their head, \u003cem\u003eThe Bridegroom Was a Dog i\u003c\/em\u003es a disarming and unforgettable modern classic. Its initial publication in 1998 garnered admiration from \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e, which praised it as a \"fast-moving, mysteriously compelling tale that has the dream quality of Kafka.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Bridegroom Was a Dog\u003c\/em\u003e begins with a schoolteacher telling a fable to her students. In the fable, a princess promises her hand in marriage to a dog that has licked her bottom clean. The story takes an even stranger twist when that very dog appears to the schoolteacher in real life as a doglike man. A romantic -- and sexual -- courtship develops, much to the chagrin of her friends, who have suspicions about the man's identity.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50102614196447,"sku":"9780811239967","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/a1XfHkPMV09780811239967.webp?v=1781083597"},{"product_id":"archipelago-of-the-sun-paperback","title":"Archipelago of the Sun - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Archipelago of the Sun\u003c\/em\u003e finds Hiruko still searching for her lost country, traveling around the Baltic on a mail boat. With her are Knut, a Danish linguist; Akash, an Indian in the process of moving to the opposite sex; Nanook, a Greenlander who once worked as a sushi chef; Nora, the German woman who loves Nanook but is equally concerned with social justice and the environment; and Susanoo, a former sushi chef who believes he is responsible for the entire group. But weren't they originally supposed to sail to Cape Town, and then on to India? Puzzled by this sudden change in route, which no one seems to remember anything about, they encounter long dead writers (Witold Gombrowicz, Hella Wuolijoki) on board, plus a cast of characters from literature, art, and myth. As the very existence of Hiruko and Susanoo's homeland is called into question, Susanoo meets the mythical princess he will marry, and Hiruko tells the others that she herself will be a house in which everyone can live. Though the trilogy comes to its end, their journey seems likely to continue.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50102883320031,"sku":"9780811239790","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/pgoXWOzS-H9780811239790.webp?v=1781087533"},{"product_id":"suggested-in-the-stars-paperback","title":"Suggested in the Stars - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's hard to believe there could be a more enjoyable novel than \u003cem\u003eScattered All Over the Earth\u003c\/em\u003e--Yoko Tawada's rollicking, touching, cheerfully dystopian novel about friendship and climate change--but surprising her readers is what Tawada does best: its sequel, \u003cem\u003eSuggested in the Stars\u003c\/em\u003e, delivers exploits even more poignant and shambolic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs Hiruko--whose Land of Sushi has vanished into the sea and who is still searching for someone who speaks her mother tongue--and her new friends travel onward, they begin opening up to one another in new and extraordinary ways. They try to help their friend Susanoo regain his voice, both for his own good and so he can speak with Hiruko--and amid many often hilarious misunderstandings (some linguistic in nature)--they empower each other against despair. Coping with carbon footprint worries but looping singly and in pairs, they hitchhike, take late-night motorcycle rides, and hop on the train (learning about railway strikes but also packed-train-yoga) to convene in Copenhagen. There they find Susanoo in a strange hospital working with a scary speech-loss doctor. In the half-basement of this weird medical center (with strong echoes of Lars von Trier's 1990s TV series \u003cem\u003eThe Kingdom\u003c\/em\u003e), they also find two special kids washing dishes. They discover magic radios, personality swaps, ship tickets delivered by a robot, and other gifts. But friendship--loaning one another the nerve and heart to keep going--sets them all (and the reader) to dreaming of something more... \u003cem\u003eSuggested in the Stars\u003c\/em\u003e delivers new delights, and Yoko Tawada's famed new trilogy will conclude in 2025 with \u003cem\u003eArchipelago of the Sun\u003c\/em\u003e, even if nobody will ever want this \"strange, exquisite\" (\u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e) trip to end.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50103952310495,"sku":"9780811237932","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/ClGTa8W0X69780811237932.webp?v=1781099812"},{"product_id":"paul-celan-and-the-trans-tibetan-angel-paperback","title":"Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePatrik, who sometimes calls himself \"the patient,\" is a literary researcher living in present-day Berlin. The city is just coming back to life after lockdown, and his beloved opera houses are open again, but Patrik cannot leave the house and hardly manages to get out of bed. When he shaves his head, his girlfriend scolds him, \"What have you done to your head? I don't want to be with a prisoner from a concentration camp!\" He is supposed to give a paper at a conference in Paris, on the poetry collection \u003cem\u003eThreadsuns\u003c\/em\u003e by Paul Celan, but he can't manage to get past the first question on the registration form: \"What is your nationality?\" Then at a caf? (or in the memory of being at a caf??), he meets a mysterious stranger. The man's name is Leo-Eric Fu, and somehow he already knows Patrik...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the spirit of imaginative homage like Roberto Bola?o's \u003cem\u003eMonsieur Pain\u003c\/em\u003e, Antonio Tabucchi's \u003cem\u003eRequiem\u003c\/em\u003e, and Thomas Bernhard's \u003cem\u003eWittgenstein's Nephew\u003c\/em\u003e, Yoko Tawada's mesmerizing new novel unfolds like a lucid dream in which friendship, conversation, reading, poetry, and music are the connecting threads that bind us together.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50104423219423,"sku":"9780811234870","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/pGef2j5zG39780811234870.webp?v=1781108277"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/yoko-tawada.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}