Shipwrecks - Hardcover

Yoshimura, Akira

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151002118 ISBN 13: 9780151002115

Publisher: Harcourt, 1996

Synopsis

Living in a remote, desperately poor fishing village in medieval Japan, nine-year-old Isaku becomes the head of the family in his father's absence and, with the villagers, makes a living from luring merchant ships onto the rocky shoals, slaughtering their crews, and looting the cargo.

About this title

Review:

Although Akira Yoshimura is one of Japan's most prolific and celebrated authors, his work is little known outside of his native country. Shipwrecks, one of the first of his 20 novels to be translated into English, tells the tale of Isaku, a 9-year-old boy who is forced to scrounge to provide for his desperately poor family. For the people of the medieval Japanese village in which Isaku lives, the only relief from near starvation comes in the guise of the shipwrecks of the title. To lure merchant ships off course, the villagers light huge bonfires. But even their success turns to disaster when the wreckage of one such ship includes not only rice, but smallpox.

About the Author:

Akira Yoshimura is the prize-winning author of twenty novels and short-story collections, many of them bestsellers in Japan. One Man's Justice is his third novel to be translated into English.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harcourt
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0151002118
• ISBN 13: 9780151002115
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 180