貝に続く場所にて

Where do memories go when we are gone?

貝に続く場所にて deals with the topic of memory, both individual and collective, death and loss, and distance. The narrator is an art history student from Sendai living in Göttingen and working on her doctoral thesis. She lived through the earthquake in 2011 and lost her sempai to the tsunami, but hasn’t processed her feelings about that time or his death. Suddenly he contacts her one day to let her know that he is coming to Göttingen, and they reunite for the first time in nine years. After his arrival, time begins to warp and strange things start happening all over the town…

This is one of the most complex Akutagawa books I’ve read so far, not necessarily from a language standpoint, but from a literary standpoint. The story is filled with symbolism and metaphors and reading it felt like slowly piecing together a puzzle, working from the border pieces inwards as I slowly got more info. Despite being somewhat dense, the prose was beautiful and a pleasure to read. 石沢麻衣, being an art historian herself (I believe?), incorporates this background into her writing, describing the settings and actions almost like a painting, with special care given to light, color and contrast. While the storyline takes an abstract turn towards the end, the descriptive language ensured that I could still keep a visual grasp of the unfolding events, which I found impressive. All in all, I’m not sure if I had fun reading the book, but it was an experience and the ideas presented in it were fully explored in a way that created an emotional catharsis at the end.

This contained a lot of specialized vocabulary related to astronomy and art history, specifically medieval European religious artwork and saints, which could make this challenging for most readers here. So, I’m not sure I’d recommend this for anyone who wants to casually read an Akutagawa prize book. If you’re looking for something to really dig into though, this may be an interesting one for you.