Stand-In Companion
Published on 23. November 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
58 pages
978-1-912864-00-3 (ISBN)
Description
Stand-In Companion, by the award-winning Japanese author Kazufumi Shiraishi, explores the struggle to find love, companionship and meaning in life. In any society, relationship dynamics are complex. And as Hayato, a Japanese industrial designer will discover in this clever and absorbing tale, this is even the case in a future world enriched by technology, AI and androids.
A love story with a twist, Stand-In Companion is a touching and powerful exploration of infertility and relationships. Hayato and his wife, Yutori, face deeply human challenges in a world where science has solved almost every problem.
A clever, absorbing and profoundly modern tale from one of Japan’s best and most insightful storytellers.
Red Circle Minis: Original, Short and Compelling Reads
Stand-In Companion is part of Red Circle Minis, a series of short captivating books by Japan’s finest contemporary writers that brings the narratives and voices of Japan together as never before. Each book is a first edition written specifically for the series and is being published in English first.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Red Circle Authors Limited
Dimensions
Height: 178 mm
Width: 108 mm
Thickness: 4 mm
Weight
55 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-912864-00-3 (9781912864003)
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
A deeply thoughtful author who writes about love, life and the human condition and is unique in being the only Japanese author to follow in his father's footsteps by winning the same major Japanese literary prize, the Naoki Prize.
Initially, Kazufumi Shiraishi didn't believe that becoming an author was a career option. He worked for two decades as a journalist and editor at one of Japan's leading monthly magazines before making the daunting decision to follow his award-winning father and twin brother's examples.
His first novel, Isshun no hikari (A Ray of Light), a tragic love story, instantly put him on the literary map when it was published in 2000, to great critical acclaim. Kazufumi's father, Ichiro Shiraishi, won the prestigious Naoki Prize after being nominated eight times; while Kazufumi won the prize on only his second nomination for Hokanaranu hito e (To an Incomparable Other), his fifteenth novel.
In 2016, his first novel published in English, Me Against the World, by Dalkey Archive Press (first published in Japanese in 2008), was ranked by The Japan Times as one of the best ten books released in 2016.