{"product_id":"the-thorn-puller-9781737625308","title":"The Thorn Puller","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Sakutaro Hagiwara Prize and the Murasaki\u003cbr\u003eShikibu Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntroducing Hiromi Ito, an award-winning Japanese author who has been compared to Haruki Murakami and Yoko Tawada.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first novel to appear in English by award-winning author Hiromi Ito explores the absurdities, complexities, and challenges experienced by a woman\u003cbr\u003ecaring for her two families: her husband and daughters in California and her aging\u003cbr\u003eparents in Japan. As the narrator shuttles back and forth between these two\u003cbr\u003estarkly different cultures, she creates a powerful and entertaining narrative\u003cbr\u003eabout what it means to live and die in a globalized society.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIto has been described as a \"shaman of poetry\" because of\u003cbr\u003eher skill in allowing the voices of others to flow through her. Here she enriches\u003cbr\u003eher semi-autobiographical novel by channeling myriad voices drawn from Japanese\u003cbr\u003efolklore, poetry, literature, and pop culture. The result is a generic\u003cbr\u003echimera--part poetry, part prose, part epic--a unique, transnational, polyvocal\u003cbr\u003emode of storytelling. One throughline is a series of memories associated with\u003cbr\u003ethe Buddhist bodhisattva Jizo, who helps to remove the \"thorns\" of human suffering.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Stone Bridge Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/13\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781737625308\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 280\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/10\/2022\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Hiromi Ito","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42451409993909,"sku":"9781737625308","price":16.11,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_c1bc56fb-8191-45c2-ad2a-5e188440ab29.jpg?v=1666108340","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-thorn-puller-9781737625308","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}