About the author:
Masatsugu ONO was born in 1970. He is a Romance studies scholar, translator, and author of numerous novels. 
At the Waseda University in Tôkyô Currently he holds the position as Professor. In 2001 he was awarded the Asahi New Writers Award, and in 2014 he received the 152nd Akutagawa Prize.
Translation into German: 
Am Fuße des Tokyo Skytree : Die Geschichte eines Geflüchteten aus dem Kongo.  Translated by Heike Patzschke. In: Donnerberg, Louisa / Schreiber, Ulrich: Refugees Worldwide. Literarische Reportagen. Berlin: Verlag Klaus Wagenbach 2017
Translations into English: 
At the Edge of the Woods, TWO LINES PRESS (April 2022), translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter
Echo on the Bay, TWO LINES PR; Translation Edition 2020, translated by Angus Turvill
Lion Cross Point, TWO LINES PR; Translation Edition 2018, translated by Angus Turvill
At the Edge of the Woods,‎ UEA Publishing Project 2017, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter

About the book:
Translation of the title: Lion Cross Point
170 pages
ISBN-10: 4062182076
ISBN-13: 978-4062182072 
Publisher: Kôdansha, 2013

Original language: Japanese
English translation: Lion Cross Point, 
TWO LINES PR; translation edition 2018, translated by Angus Turvill

Subject:
This novel focuses on the ten-year-old boy Takeru who is shy and has been traumatized by memories of unspeakable acts against his mother and his handicapped brother. Mitsuko, an elderly woman, takes Takeru to his mother’s village and cares for him. A subtle portrayal of a child’s sense of memory and community, the novel describes how the little boy is gradually cured thanks to the power and beauty of nature and to the human warmth of the villagers for whom cohesion in the human community is essential.

Abstract:
The writing style of the novel is based on the multiple third-person perspective, but most of the work is written in a way that is close to the single third-person perspective, that means to Takeru’s position. However, Takeru is only ten years old, and his memories are very vague due to his traumatic experiences. So, he is unable to tell anyone about them. The invisible narrator accompanies the protagonist and offers a narrative quality similar to that of a first-person novel, telling what the protagonist himself cannot tell, and telling only what the reader cannot know. It is not Takeru but the narrator who asks and answers the questions and summarizes the story.
Takeru’s mother lives together with her two sons and a violent man in the town of Momono, later she and her sons flee to Akeroma. The siblings are neglected and eventually abandoned by their mother, but from time to time the brothers get help and are rescued by kind neighbors so that they somehow survive. In the summer of his tenth year, Takeru is taken to his mother’s village on Kyushu by Mitsuko, an elderly woman who is one of Takeru’s relatives, with whom he lives from then on. The fate of his brother remains uncertain. Takeru leads a sheltered life here, surrounded by goodwill and human warmth, but memories of his terrible experiences in Momono and Akeroma keep coming back.
A mysterious presence appears in this novel. He is the first person Takeru sees when he arrives at the airport, and sometimes he appears and reassures him with strange words. It is clear that he is a man, but he looks like he could be either a child or an old man, though he is neither. When Takeru arrives at Mitsuko’s house, he finds a photo of someone who looks like this person. He is called “Bunji,” is mentally disabled, and died when he was very young. His younger brother Takeshi had also died quite young. Takeru feels they have something in common: the similarity of the names Takeru and Takeshi and the fact that they have a disabled brother.
Takeru experiences a kind of spiritual healing through the human warmth of the villagers and the strong power of nature. It is the author’s idiosyncrasy to close the story with a positive outlook while constantly denouncing light and shadow.

Translator Dr Heike Patschke presented the book in our pitching session on 3 March 2022.

For further information please contact:

Dr Heike Patzschke
On this website
Barbarastraße 4
D-50374 Erftstadt
Tel: 02235-7940577
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.japan-communication-office.de