Facing the Bridge

From Japan to Vietnam to Amsterdam to the Canary Islands, these three tales by master storyteller Yoko Tawada float between cultures, identities and the dreamwork of the imagination.

Amo, an African kidnapped to Europe as a boy, and Tamao, a Japanese exchange student in Germany, live in different countries but are being followed by the same shadow; Kazuko, a young professional tourist, is lured to Vietnam by a mysterious postcard; on the Canary Islands, a nameless translator battles a banana grove and a series of Saint Georges... These three tales by master storyteller Yoko Tawada cross cultures and histories with a sensuous playfulness. In Facing the Bridge, obsession becomes delight as the reader is whisked into a world where identities flicker and shift in a never-ending balance.