Title:: [[The Place of Shells]] Authors:: [[Mai Ishizawa]] Tags:: #fiction #translatedfiction Read:: [[2025-05-24]] Instagram :: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKDj8QVOGBr/ ## Editions - Edition:: [[New Directions]], Paperback, 2025 - Original Copyright:: 2021 - Pages:: 145 ## Purchase * Bookshop.org:: https://bookshop.org/a/94437/9780811237789 ## Annotations A surreal and sad story about survivors’ guilt and the inescapable toll of cultural trauma centered on the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami but set amidst the coronavirus pandemic in Göttingen, Germany.  My reading experience felt disjointed and this wasn’t for me at this time, though I can imagine coming to this differently and enjoying it more. I’m a sucker for a truffle dog in a starring role, after all.  One reason I couldn’t fully get into it is that it got me thinking about translation, specifically whether a language like Japanese forces a certain style of writing. I couldn’t escape a familiar sense, like a detached directness or a subtle emotionality, reminiscent of other Japanese novels. Is there something inherent in Japanese that induces this? Is it unique to how Japanese is translated into English? Am I just tired? These are the thoughts bouncing around in the disjointed spaces of the novel. I should have taken more linguistic classes.  Translated by [[Polly Barton]] ([@pollybukuro](https://www.instagram.com/pollybukuro/)).