Subduction
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- £12.99
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- £12.99
Publisher Description
"Shimoda is a consummate storyteller" — Booklist
"Shimoda skillfully weaves (these) tales into the narrative, revealing how past events "continue to affect the island, like aftershocks." Earthquakes are an apt metaphor for the social disruptions on the island, and Shimoda links modern earthquake science, ancient Japanese myths on the origin of earthquakes, and an unforgettable cast of characters to create a suspenseful, richly illustrated novel." — Publishers Weekly
"Husband and wife team Todd and Linda Shimoda’s skills blend seamlessly together to make Subduction a hauntingly beautiful and highly unique novel. The author’s prose and illustrator’s talent give the book a tone and quality that is both rare and memorable." - ForeWord
Subduction is a timely, electrifying thriller set on a tiny, earthquake-plagued island. Endo, a young physician unjustly charged with a patient's death, is banished to the island to care for the few remaining elderly residents. Determined to remain on their crumbling island and resuscitate their defunct fishing industry, the aging islanders plot against all outsiders.
After a mysterious death and attacks on Endo and fellow newcomvers, he discovers why the islanders don't wish to leave: years ago, jealousies, lust, and violence ripped apart their lives, and the wounds haven't healed. The aftershocks of the islanders' past, as well as Endo's own troubled history, replay violently in the present just as a massive earthquake strikes.
Exquisitely designed with L.J.C. Shimoda's artwork throughout, Subduction also features a sixteen-page illustrated retelling of the myth of Kashima, the god who controls a giant, thrashing catfish that causes earthquakes. The myth offers clues to the mysterious motives of the island's denizens.
Todd Shimoda won the 2010 Elliot Cades Award for Literature from the Hawai'i Literary Arts Council. His previous novel Oh! was an NPR Best Summer Read. The Fourth Treasure was translated into six languages and named a notable book by the Kiriyama Prize.
L.J.C. Shimoda is an accomplished artist, illustrator, and book designer. Her artwork and illustrations have appeared in her husband Todd Shimoda's novels 365 Views of Mt. Fuji, The Fourth Treasure, and Oh!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Shimoda's eerie thriller (after Oh! A Mystery of Mono No Aware), a young Japanese doctor, Endo, is banished to Marui-jima, "a dust mote of an island," after he takes the blame for a patient's death. Although the government ordered the island's evacuation after a decade-long "earthquake swarm," its elderly inhabitants refuse to leave their home. On Marui-jima, Endo meets Aki, a seismologist who left his family in Tokyo to study the island's earthquakes and subduction zones, and Mari, a beautiful documentary filmmaker "dealing with demons." From Mari and Aki, Endo uncovers Marui-jima's past: a history of resentment between the local fishermen and the wealthy Furuta who bought them out to form his powerful fleet, an illicit "exchange" between Furuta and a fisherman's wife, and two deaths that remain unexplained 40 years later. As Endo and Mari grow closer, she shares with him the islanders' stories as well as Aki's and her own. Shimoda skillfully weaves these tales into the narrative, revealing how past events "continue to affect the island, like aftershocks." Earthquakes are an apt metaphor for the social disruptions on the island, and Shimoda links modern earthquake science, ancient Japanese myths on the origin of earthquakes, and an unforgettable cast of characters to create a suspenseful, richly illustrated novel.
