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Fran Nieto
Aki Shimazaki It is unique in its kind. She manages to write magnificent, short, very simple little stories that always take place in Japan, and that are composed in series, but that can be read independently. She is intelligent, deep, full of sensitivity and, for anyone interested in Japan, with each of her books we learn something new. And the most important thing is that it is a great pleasure to read it.
The author of Suzuran, the first in a new series, is a Canadian novelist and translator. She moved to Canada in 1981 and lived in Vancouver and Toronto. Since 1991 she has lived in Montreal, where she teaches Japanese and publishes her novels in French. Her second novel, Hamaguri, won the Ringuet Prize in 2000.
‘Suzuran’, named after this delicate flower with a heady lily-of-the-valley scent, evokes these snowballs that house small landscapes
In a small town near the Sea of Japan, from where you can see the snow-capped peaks of Mount Daisen, lives Anzu, a woman in her thirties who is raising her son alone. Divorced, independent, blessed with great gentleness, she seems immune to the cruelty of the world. Anzu’s secret is her gift for ceramics. She prepares vases to accommodate these floral arrangements called ikebana, which means “art of living with flowers.” This gift of hers seems to define her and arm her against trials, pain, and betrayal.
Evolving between her elderly parents, her ex-husband, her charming future brother-in-law and her sister who has everything to be happy, except the happiness of being inhabited by a passion, Anzu makes her way with discretion, skill and determination.
Suzuran, named after this delicate flower with an intoxicating scent of lily of the valley, evokes these snowballs that house small landscapes: just shake them and the storm will unleash…
Aki Shimazaki’s writing is characterized by always being captivating. She perfumes her novels with flowers and sweetness
As always happens in his works we find the attachment to symbols, signs, destiny. Here Suzuran is a flower, a lily of the valley, also the name of the last vase made by the artist-potter sister, who is the narrator. The details of the landscape, of Japanese cuisine, of the objects (here the ceramics whose natural colors are created by burning wood), the meaning of the words according to the writing method (katakana, hiragana or kanji), with which they give many I want to learn this type of writing.
Aki Shimazaki’s writing is characterized by always being captivating. She perfumes her novels with flowers and sweetness. Aromas that are breathed in small moments of an almost banal daily life. Almost, because creating a vase as beautiful from the land that bears the name of Suzuran, as the flower for which it is intended, is not so trivial.
In the art of Ikebana, the container being as important as the content, a matter of harmony and trust, one is not left without the other, the vase and the flower, obviously, as for couples and love affairs. A novel in Zen mode to breathe, close your eyes, the end of May, the month of the lily of the valley, and observe the silence, which unfortunately is so absent in our tired days.
To those who liked this beautiful short novel, tell them that a barrage of new titles from the author are coming: The Weight of Secrets (5 volumes), In the Heart of Yamato and The Shadow of the Thistle (also a pentalogy).
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