The Cake Tree in the Ruins

Intensely moving stories that tell of the absurd violence of war, and tenderly depict the animals and children caught in its vortex

'I am still unable to leave the burnt-out ruins'
Akiyuki Nosaka, 2014

In 1945, Akiyuki Nosaka lived through the Allied firebombing of Kobe. His father and mother were killed in the raid. His sister died shortly afterwards. The unforgettably powerful stories in this book are inspired by his memories of that time.

A lonely whale searches the oceans for a mate, and sacrifices himself for love; a mother desperately tries to save her son with her tears; a huge, magnificent tree grows amid the ruins of a burnt-out town, its branches made from the sweetest cake imaginable.

Profound, heartbreaking and aglow with a piercing beauty, these stories express the chaos and terror of conflict, yet also reveal how love can illuminate even the darkest moment.

Akiyuki Nosaka was born in 1930 in Japan, and was a member of the yakeato generation, 'the generation of the ashes', who survived the devastating firebombing of Japan during the Second World War. Nosaka was an award-winning novelist, short-story writer, essayist, lyricist, singer and politician. His adoptive parents were killed in the Allied firebombing of Kobe, and after he was evacuated with his sister, she died of malnutrition. These experiences inspired the stories in this collection, as well as one of his best-known works, Grave of the Fireflies, which was turned into a hugely successful Studio Ghibli film (called 'a masterpiece' by the Guardian), and which is forthcoming in a new translation from Pushkin Press. Nosaka died in 2015.