From Shion Miura, award-winning author of The Easy Life in Kamusari, comes a spirit-lifting novel about tradition, first love, and ancient lore in a Japanese mountain village. It's been a year since Yuki Hirano left home-or more precisely, was booted from it-to study forestry in the remote mountain village of Kamusari. Being a woodsman is not the future he imagined, but his name means "courage," and Yuki hopes to live up to it. He's adapting to his job and learning constantly. In between, he records local legends-tales pulsing with life, passion, and wondrous gods. Kamusari has other charms as well. One of them is Nao. Yuki's crush on the only other young single person in the village isn't a secret. Yet how impressed can she be with someone at least five years younger who makes less money and doesn't even own a car? More daunting, she's in love with another man. Finally finding his place among the villagers, a feeling deepened by his crush, Yuki seems headed for a dream life of adventure and camaraderie-and Nao could be the missing piece of that dream.

About the Author
Shion Miura made her fiction debut in 2000 with Kakuto suru mono ni maru (A Passing Grade for Those Who Fight). In 2006, she won the Naoki Prize for her story collection Mahoro ekimae Tada Benriken (The Handymen in Mahoro Town). Her other novels include Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru (The Wind Blows Hard), Kogure-so monogatari (The Kogure Apartments), and Ano ie ni kurasu yonin no onna (The Four Women Living in That House). Her other works in English, all translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter, include The Easy Life in Kamusari (Kamusari naanaa nichijo), volume one in her Forest series, and The Great Passage (Fune o amu), which was made into an award-winning motion picture and received both the Booksellers' Award in Japan in 2012 and an Earphones Award. Miura has also published more than fifteen collections of essays and is a manga aficionado.

Reviews
Praise for The Easy Life in Kamusari "Fans of all ages should enjoy the author's blend of the traditional and the contemporary...In a battle of Japanese settings, wondrous mountains win big over bustling cities." -Kirkus Reviews Praise for The Great Passage Winner of an Earphones Award, Fiction "Mastery of words may not result in masterly communication, and a great dictionary, like a love story, is 'the result of people puzzling over their choices'-a classic tension that has made The Great Passage a prizewinner in Japan, as well as both a successful feature film and an animated television series." -The New York Times "Swirling with witty enchantment, The Great Passage proves to be, well, utterly great. Readers should be advised to get ready to sigh with delighted satisfaction and awe-inspiring admiration." -Booklist (starred review) "The Great Passage has a philosophy of thoughtfulness and dedication to words that any reader will understand...Miura's prose-and Carpenter's translation-glides along, smooth and precise, with flashes of quiet poetry." -Metropolis "The Great Passage is interwoven with romantic love stories, but ultimately it is the passion of the characters, their friendship, and their devotion to their task that direct and complete the narrative and turn it from simply a good book to a great one." -Talia Franks, Three Percent



Book Information
ISBN 9781542028882
Author Shion Miura
Format Paperback
Page Count 190
Imprint AmazonCrossing
Publisher Amazon Publishing