Another blurb

Yesterday morning I received a third blurb for my novel Kanazawa. This one came from the well-known author Alex Kerr, who any Japanophile (and lover of Thai culture) will almost surely have read. Kerr’s Lost Japan is a classic, and his Another Bangkok, which I read only last week, is equally illuminating and brilliant. Here is what he said about Kanazawa:

"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."

To have received positive blurbs from Alex Kerr, Robert Whiting, and Roger Pulvers far exceeds my expectations. And I just learned that a book reviewer from The Japan Times has given Kanazawa its highest rating on Goodreads, which feels, somehow, like more undeserved kindness. Undeserved though it may be, I’ll gratefully take it…