From the author of Winter in Sokcho, which won the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature.
The days are beginning to draw in. The sky is dark by seven in the evening. I lie on the floor and gaze out of the window. Women’s calves, men’s shoes, heels trodden down by the weight of bodies borne for too long.
It is summer in Tokyo. Claire finds herself dividing her time between tutoring twelve-year-old Mieko in an apartment in an abandoned hotel and lying on the floor at her grandparents- daydreaming, playing Tetris, and listening to the sounds from the street above. The heat rises; the days slip by.
The plan is for Claire to visit Korea with her grandparents. They fled the civil war there over fifty years ago, along with thousands of others, and haven’t been back since. When they first arrived in Japan, they opened Shiny, a pachinko parlour. Shiny is still open, drawing people in with its bright, flashing lights and promises of good fortune. And as Mieko and Claire gradually bond, their tender relationship growing, Mieko’s determination to visit the pachinko parlour builds.
The Pachinko Parlour is a nuanced and beguiling exploration of identity and otherness, unspoken histories, and the loneliness you can feel within a family. Crisp and enigmatic, Shua Dusapin’s writing glows with intelligence.
‘A book full of delicacy and melancholy … sprinkled with meticulous touches.’ -Le Monde
Praise for Winter in Sokcho- ‘Enigmatic, beguiling … This finely crafted debut explores topics of identity and heredity in compelling fashion. In its aimless, outsider protagonist there are echoes of Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman.’ -Sarah Gilmartin, The Irish Times
Praise for Winter in Sokcho- ‘This irresistible and spare novel sketches with exquisite depth a season of searching for both a French Korean woman and a French visitor … the brevity and pacing of its vignettes are also reminiscent of comics … Dusapin’s beguiling work resembles a vibrant graphic novel, sans pictures … This irresistible and spare novel sketches with exquisite depth a season of searching for both a French Korean woman and a French visitor.’ -Dave Wheeler, Shelf Awareness
