Author(s): Pico IYER

Travel | History

 For decades now, Pico Iyer has been based for much of the year in Nara, Japan, where he and his Japanese wife, Hiroko, share a two-room apartment. But when his father-in-law dies suddenly, calling him back to Japan earlier than expected, Iyer begins to grapple with the question we all have to live with: how to hold on to the things we love, even though we know that we and they are dying.In a country whose calendar is marked with occasions honouring the dead, this question has a special urgency and currency. Iyer leads us through the autumn following his father-in-law's death, introducing us to the people who populate his days: his ailing mother-in-law, who often forgets that her husband has died; his absent brother-in-law, who severed ties with his family years ago but to whom Hiroko still writes letters; and the men and women in his ping-pong club, who, many years his senior, traverse their autumn years in different ways. And as the maple leaves begin to redden and the heat begins to soften, Iyer offers us a singular view of Japan, in the season that reminds us to take nothing for granted.

Description: For decades now, Pico Iyer has been based for much of the year in Nara, Japan, where he and his Japanese wife, Hiroko, share a two-room apartment. But when his father-in-law dies suddenly, calling him back to Japan earlier than expected, Iyer begins to grapple with the question we all have to live with: how to hold on to the things we love, even though we know that we and they are dying. In a country whose calendar is marked with occasions honouring the dead, this question has a special urgency and currency. Iyer leads us through the autumn following his father-in-law's death, introducing us to the people who populate his days: his ailing mother-in-law, who often forgets that her husband has died; his absent brother-in-law, who severed ties with his family years ago but to whom Hiroko still writes letters; and the men and women in his ping-pong club, who, many years his senior, traverse their autumn years in different ways. And as the maple leaves begin to redden and the heat begins to soften, Iyer offers us a singular view of Japan, in the season that reminds us to take nothing for granted.

Review: What holds everything together, besides Iyer's elegantly smooth prose style and gift for detailed observation, is a circling around the theme of autumn in Japan and this autumnal period in his life ... There's much wisdom in what he says * New York Times Book Review * [An] exquisite personal blend of philosophy and engagement, inner quiet and worldly life ... A vivid meditation ... It's Iyer's keen ear for detail and human nature that helps him populate his trademark cantabile prose ... [A] genuine and loving tale * Los Angeles Times * Luminous ... An engrossing narrative, a moving meditation on loss and an evocative, lyrical portrait of Japanese society * Publishers Weekly * As a guide to far-flung places, Pico Iyer can hardly be surpassed -- praise for 'Sun After Dark' * New Yorker * Humbling and moving ... One of a handful of magical books that I have read straight through -- praise for 'The Man Within My Head' * Daily Telegraph * In his guise of travel writer, Iyer has really been our most elegant poet of dislocation -- praise for 'The Man Within My Head' * Guardian *

Author Biography: Pico Iyer is the author of more than a dozen books, translated into twenty-three languages, and he regularly contributes to the New York Review of Books, Granta, the Financial Times and dozens of magazines around the world. His three recent talks for TED have received seven million views so far.

Promotional Information: From one of our most astute observers of human nature, a far-reaching exploration of Japanese history and culture and a moving meditation on impermanence, mortality and grief