Since Fukushima

To read Wago Ryoichi’s Since Fukushima is to wake up in a hall of mirrors. Not the kind Bruce Lee enters in Enter the Dragon. In Halebsky & Takahashi’s astounding translation of Wago’s world, the mirrors face the walls, while their opaque sides stare at you. And while in Bruce Lee’s room you would be lost among your doppelgangers, in Wago’s you will be alone. This is not to say he has wrought a language of nihilism. Quite the opposite. Wago’s speaker, like a water diviner, locates hope in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster. There is no greater achievement than this.

2024 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize Shortlist Citation