A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding
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Jackie Copleton was born in in Scotland in 1972, and graduated from Cambridge with a degree in English. She spent three years teaching English in Nagasaki and Sapporo, before returing to the UK to study Journalism. She later completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Glasgow University. "A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding" is her debut novel.
Amaterasu Takahashi is an elderly widow, now living alone in Pennsylvania. The book opens with a surprise visit, one that causes her a great deal of shock. Her visitor is a man in his forties or fifties, Japanese like herself, badly burned and scarred – a condition she is saldy all too familiar with, coming from Nagasaki. The man introduces himself as Hideo Watanabe, her grandson. This is something Amaterasu cannot accept – she knows that her daughter and her grandson were both killed when the bomb was dropped over Nagasaki in 1945. Amaterasu and her husband, Kenzo, had searched relentlessly for the pair; they saw no chance of survival.
Amaterasu naturally has grave doubts and initially sends him away. However, he genuinely seems to believe he is who he says he is – and leaves a collection of letters that he hopes will support his claim. Even reading them, she can't discount the possibility of some sort of cruel trick. (Many of the letters are written are written by Hideo's adoptive father – a former friend of Kenzo's, who Amaterasu have very good reason to despise). However, she can't ignore the visit, the letters, the emotions that come back to the surface.
A beautifully written book. Amaterasu looks back over her life, picks at memories and reads through diaries and letters trying to work out if this man could really be her grandson. The section that describes what happened when the bomb went off, and the aftermath, is heartbreaking. Very much recommended.
Amaterasu Takahashi is an elderly widow, now living alone in Pennsylvania. The book opens with a surprise visit, one that causes her a great deal of shock. Her visitor is a man in his forties or fifties, Japanese like herself, badly burned and scarred – a condition she is saldy all too familiar with, coming from Nagasaki. The man introduces himself as Hideo Watanabe, her grandson. This is something Amaterasu cannot accept – she knows that her daughter and her grandson were both killed when the bomb was dropped over Nagasaki in 1945. Amaterasu and her husband, Kenzo, had searched relentlessly for the pair; they saw no chance of survival.
Amaterasu naturally has grave doubts and initially sends him away. However, he genuinely seems to believe he is who he says he is – and leaves a collection of letters that he hopes will support his claim. Even reading them, she can't discount the possibility of some sort of cruel trick. (Many of the letters are written are written by Hideo's adoptive father – a former friend of Kenzo's, who Amaterasu have very good reason to despise). However, she can't ignore the visit, the letters, the emotions that come back to the surface.
A beautifully written book. Amaterasu looks back over her life, picks at memories and reads through diaries and letters trying to work out if this man could really be her grandson. The section that describes what happened when the bomb went off, and the aftermath, is heartbreaking. Very much recommended.
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Please make a journal entry to let me know that this book has been caught so I know that it has found a good home with you. I hope you like the book, but I'd be grateful if you'd let me know what you thought of it by making another journal entry when you've finished it.
Then, whenever you are ready to send it on its way, make a journal entry if you are giving or sending this book to a known person, or a release note if you are leaving it “in the wild” again for anyone to catch. Then watch its journey.
If you've decided to sign up, you’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry. And it’s confidential (you are known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spamless !
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