The Tatami Time Machine Blues
A Novel
Published on 9. November 2023
Book
Hardback
192 pages
978-0-06-315849-8 (ISBN)
Description
In the boiling heat of summer, a broken remote control for an air conditioner threatens life as we know it in this reality-bending, time-slipping sequel to The Tatami Galaxy.
During a scorching August in Kyoto, our protagonist and his worst friend, Ozu, are locked in a glaring contest in a four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room. Ozu has spilled Coke on the air conditioner's remote control-the only AC in Shimogamo Yusuisuiso, their famously shabby sweatbox of an apartment building. Vengeful and despairing, our protagonist discusses countermeasures with his secret crush, the reliably blunt Akashi, when Tamura, a strange young man with a bad haircut, appears.
Tamura claims to be a time traveler from 25 years in the future, and shows off the time machine he uses to travel. Our protagonist has a brilliant idea: the sweetest revenge would be to go back one day in time and retrieve the functioning remote control. His simple fix is complicated by Ozu and several others who are also eager to take a ride back in time. But in attempting to alter the past, our protagonist foresees the world's extinction. Even more troublingly, Akashi mentions she's bringing someone to the upcoming bonfire . . . and it's not him. Only one thing remains certain: it's going to be a very long month.
Obliteration? Salvation? Coca-Cola? Castella cake? What does the time machine hold for our (not quite) heroes? It all depends on which one gets there first.
Translated from the Japanese by Emily Balistrieri
During a scorching August in Kyoto, our protagonist and his worst friend, Ozu, are locked in a glaring contest in a four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room. Ozu has spilled Coke on the air conditioner's remote control-the only AC in Shimogamo Yusuisuiso, their famously shabby sweatbox of an apartment building. Vengeful and despairing, our protagonist discusses countermeasures with his secret crush, the reliably blunt Akashi, when Tamura, a strange young man with a bad haircut, appears.
Tamura claims to be a time traveler from 25 years in the future, and shows off the time machine he uses to travel. Our protagonist has a brilliant idea: the sweetest revenge would be to go back one day in time and retrieve the functioning remote control. His simple fix is complicated by Ozu and several others who are also eager to take a ride back in time. But in attempting to alter the past, our protagonist foresees the world's extinction. Even more troublingly, Akashi mentions she's bringing someone to the upcoming bonfire . . . and it's not him. Only one thing remains certain: it's going to be a very long month.
Obliteration? Salvation? Coca-Cola? Castella cake? What does the time machine hold for our (not quite) heroes? It all depends on which one gets there first.
Translated from the Japanese by Emily Balistrieri
Reviews / Votes
"While readers of the original Japanese endured 16 years of waiting, anglophone audiences got lucky with a mere year in between Morimi's novels; gratitude for both translations goes to Balistrieri, who deftly channels the frenetic fun." - BooklistMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Dimensions
Height: 219 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
264 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-06-315849-8 (9780063158498)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Tomihiko Morimi was born and raised in Nara Prefecture, Japan. His first novel Tower of the Sun, which he wrote while studying at Kyoto University, won the 15th Japan Fantasy Novel Award. In 2006, he received the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize for the novel The Night is Short, Walk on Girl, and in 2010, Penguin Highway was awarded the Japan SF Grand Prize. In 2023, the English edition of The Tatami Galaxy was shortlisted for the PEN Translation Prize. Several of his works have been adapted into critically acclaimed anime series and films. He still lives and works in Nara.