{"product_id":"the-heron-catchers-9781611720815","title":"The Heron Catchers","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA 2023 American Writing Awards Finalist \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoiner's second novel set in the fabled Kanazawa area is an intimate yet understated look at an American who seeks recovery after his marriage to a Japanese woman has failed.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter Nozomi abandons Sedge and their marriage, taking all their money and leaving him with a ceramics shop he can’t manage alone, her brother and his wife offer him a lifeline at their Japanese hot spring inn until he can get back on his feet. As he proceeds forward from this devastation in his life, he becomes involved with the wife of the man Nozomi ran off with as well as her stepson, a troubled 16-year-old whose jealousy and potential for violence contrasts with his interest in birds, origami, and the haiku of Matsuo Basho. What unfolds in the shadow of “the immortal mountain of cranes” will change their lives forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet in Kanazawa and Yamanaka Onsen near the Sea of Japan, \u003ci\u003eThe Heron Catchers \u003c\/i\u003eexplores the importance of recognizing suffering both in others and in oneself, of being compassionate, and of trusting those who offer love in the shattering wake of loss.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Heron Catchers\u003c\/i\u003e is the second in a series of novels set in and around the Japanese city of Kanazawa.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA 2023 American Writing Awards Finalist \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A couple navigates their doomed marriage while living in Yamanaka Onsen, a beautiful yet claustrophobic town where gossip is rife and private lives are public knowledge.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eIain Maloney,\u003ci\u003e The Japan Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A multi-sided geometry of love and pain set in rural Ishikawa.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eDC Palter, Japonica\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"An enjoyable look at life outside the major Japanese tourist haunts, and an examination of the issues faced by those who attempt to make a life for themselves there.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eTony's Reading List\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Heron Catchers\u003c\/i\u003e, is at once a novel about a particular place, but is also a novel for us all, as our fates and feelings are intertwined with the natural world. Joiner's deeply felt and sensitive rendering of the inner lives of men and women in midlife, who are more affected by the place they live than they are aware, shifts in subtle waves, like the ocean that borders the town of Kanazawa where much of the novel is set. Closely observed and with care paid to emotional nuances, Joiner has written a book about adult life, and the endless striving we feel for meaningful connection.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eMarie Mutsuki Mockett, author of \u003ci\u003eWhere the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Tree Doctor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This slow burn of a novel sears itself into your consciousness with equal parts tension and poignancy. \u003ci\u003eThe Heron Catchers\u003c\/i\u003e skillfully captures one blended, broken family's experience of growth and healing amidst the beauty and precariousness of Kanazawa's natural world.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eLeza Lowitz, author of \u003ci\u003eIn Search of the Sun: One Woman's Quest to Find Family in Japan\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Joiner reels the reader in with characteristic fine plotting, carefully crafted writing, vivid imagery and descriptions of life in the Japanese countryside, and a tone of authenticity belonging to a writer who knows and loves Japan. A riveting and worthy follow-up to Kanazawa.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eAmy Chavez, \u003ci\u003eThe Widow, the Priest and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“David Joiner’s \u003ci\u003eThe Heron Catchers\u003c\/i\u003e introduces us to the quiet green abundance of the Japanese mountains, the slow beauty of pottery, and the pain of love ended. We follow wounded characters, Sedge and Mariko, as they learn to heal after each has suffered from devastating betrayals. Like the herons they ultimately rescue from injuries incurred by natural and human calamities, they too strike out at those who seek to help them. Not unlike the wandering poet Matsuo Basho who steps into the frame of the story here and there, Joiner offers flashes of insights as sharp and beautiful as a heron taking flight. Readers will find in this elegiac, imaginative work, space for reflection and discovery.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Rebecca Copeland, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Kimono Tattoo\u003c\/i\u003e, co-editor of \u003ci\u003eYamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"An intimate, rewarding novel of people linked by misfortune who search for redemption, wholeness, and purpose. Joiner evokes his protagonist’s inner world vividly among descriptions of the life, culture, festivities, and natural environment of a small hot-spring town near Kanazawa. \u003ci\u003eThe Heron Catchers\u003c\/i\u003e is an engrossing sojourn in one of Japan’s most charming off-the-beaten-path destinations.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Jeffrey Angles, translator of Hiromi Ito’s \u003ci\u003eThe Thorn Puller\u003c\/i\u003e and author of \u003ci\u003eMy International Date Line\u003c\/i\u003e (Winner of the Yomiuri Prize for Literature)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePRAISE FOR DAVID JOINER'S \u003ci\u003eKANAZAWA\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eKanazawa\u003c\/i\u003e is both a sensitive portrayal of the struggles of an international marriage and a paean to the city in which it is set.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Japan Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"With its deliberate, expressive descriptions of the city and the mountains that surround it, \u003ci\u003eKanazawa\u003c\/i\u003e is a character driven novel that illustrates the importance of communication and compromise.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eDontaná McPherson-Joseph, \u003ci\u003eForeword Review\u003c\/i\u003es\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"He engages readers’ senses as a way of introducing his beautiful surroundings, describing sedate machiya homes, carafes of hot sake, aromas of temple incense, the prick of a snail shell on a lip. By keeping his sentences and structure simple, Joiner allows his decidedly Western prose to reflect a sense of Asian place without making Asia seem 'exotic.'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eLit Hub\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Reflective and atmospheric, \u003ci\u003eKanazawa\u003c\/i\u003e is a story for sitting with. The drama and conflict are experienced not as grand explosions of intense emotion but as a quiet gnawing from within that is far less easy to escape. Joiner’s patient attention to the interiority of his characters and a strong sense of place create a moving portrayal of the messiness of relationships and the ways that all the things we hope to bury in the past stay with us.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eReid Bartholomew, \u003ci\u003eWorld Literature Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Filled with lush greenery, formidable mountains, historic castles, and a vibrant local community... Kanazawa casts a shimmering layer of magical novelty around the countryside that has too long been reserved for prominent cities ever since Japan’s industrialization in the early 20th century.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eElla Kelleher, Asia Media International\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A graceful novel of a graceful city. David Joiner’s Kanazawa interweaves four love affairs, echoing the fantastical writings of the early 20th century writer Izumi Kyoka. At the story’s heart lies the enigmatic bond between Emmitt’s wife’s parents, with a secret only revealed in the novel’s dramatic climax. The other three love affairs, with their own enigmas, are Emmitt’s own - for his wife Mirai, for his adoptive city of Kanazawa, and for his muse Kyoka.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eAlex Kerr, author of \u003ci\u003eLost Japan\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eFinding the Heart Sutra\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"An intriguing story of a Japanese family worthy of the best of Japanese literature.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eRoger Pulvers, author of \u003ci\u003eLiv\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Kanazawa drips with a sense of place, the setting much more than just a back drop to the action; Joiner shows that there are plenty of stories taking place outside the vortex of Tokyo. Tense, moving, and subtly gripping, Kanazawa is a welcome addition to the books-about-Japan shelf.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eIain Maloney, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Only Gaijin in the Village \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The novel is poignant, elegant and meditative, with a cathartic climax, a dramatic payoff after a steady buildup. This is achieved fantastically, without a single dull moment. The straightforward language, the rich atmosphere, the natural flow of the characters’ thoughts, words, and movements all drive the story forward organically. Joiner has achieved an incredible feat in making a story whose lifeforce is art seem so effortless and devoid of artifice.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—\u003cb\u003eMy Murmuring Bones\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Stone Bridge Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51020116132183,"sku":"9781611720815","price":14.24,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781611720815.jpg?v=1750782463","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-heron-catchers-9781611720815","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}