"A fascinating glimpse into the intersection of art, class, and the complexity of adult friendship. . . . I couldn’t put this book down.” —Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon of the Turning Leaves
An intimate, explosive story of creativity and friendship between two young Japanese women in 1970s Tokyo.
Akemi’s desire for independence and aversion to marriage are unusual in her small village. A gift for drawing allows her to move to a rooming house in Tokyo where she studies medical illustration, finding satisfaction in the precision and purpose of her work. Sayako is the first roommate to pay Akemi attention, and they quickly become inseparable—Sayako drawn to Akemi’s humble origins, so distinct from her own insufferable, wealthy family; Akemi attracted to Sayako’s rebelliousness and her aspiration to be a painter.
As Akemi begins to model for Sayako, their connection deepens. Together, they attend ‘happenings,' encounters arranged by two enigmatic artists, Nezu and Kaori, in random locations, intended to free them from their worldly attachments. Following a devastating betrayal, Sayako disappears, and Akemi becomes determined to find her—and in the process, must newly face herself.
Tender, enthralling, and evocative of the energy of Japan in the 1970s, The Art of Vanishing is the story of a young woman struggling to see and be seen; of authenticity and art; of the thin line between loyalty and obsession.
Download and start listening now!
There was a dark underbelly to the sparkling success story that was Japan in the late 1970s and 1980s, as affluence undermined the values of many young people, making them vulnerable to charlatans and worse. Set during those ‘boom years’, Lynne Kutsukake’s suspense-filled second novel, The Art of Vanishing, offers a glimpse of the corrosive, sometimes fatal legacy left by the smug materialism of that time by juxtaposing two friends, the beautiful Sayako, a rich girl and a would-be artist, and Akemi, a girl from a poor fishing village who must learn to vanish to survive.
—
Ted Goossen, literary translator, professor emeritus at York University, and co-editor of Monkey: New Writing from Japan