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Territory of Light

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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima, read by Rina Takasaki.

Territory of Light is the radiant story of a young woman, living alone in Tokyo with her two-year-old daughter. Its twelve chapters follow the first year of the narrator's separation from her husband. The novel is full of light, sometimes comforting and sometimes dangerous: sunlight streaming through windows, dappled light in the park, distant fireworks, dazzling floodwater, de-saturated streetlamps and mysterious explosions. The delicate prose is beautifully patterned: the cumulative effect is disarmingly powerful and bright after-images remain in your mind for a long time afterwards.

 Classics Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction World Literature

Critic reviews

Spiky, atmospheric and intimate, filled with moments of strangeness that linger in the mind
In this short, powerful novel lurk the joy and guilt of single parents everywhere
This exquisite and poignant novel . . . will resonate with single mothers always and everywhere (Shami Chakrabarti)
An extraordinary book . . . cool analytic intelligence propelled by sudden eruptions of passion (Lisa Appignanesi)
An astonishing and exquisite masterpiece about love, motherhood, female independence, and the restoration of a damaged family. Yuko Tsushima is an unforgettable name alongside great masters like Virginia Woolf, Alice Munro and Elizabeth Strout (J. M. Lee, author of The Investigation)
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I gave this book a mid range rating as I can't really make my mind up weather I liked it or not. I found the main character difficult to like given the way she treated her daughter. It was a different type of book to read as it was not easy to work out exactly where the plot was going. I could not be sure weather I liked it or disliked it really.

not really sure what I think about this one.

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A story whose surface is sharp and realistic, but like an iceberg, there’s so much more to it. Brilliant, warm and bright. Be sure to let it sink in before moving on to something else.

Subtly Beautiful

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An absolute non story... And yet despite the banality, how unlikely and far fetched it all was at the same time... I was waiting for some sort of point to the story and there just isn't one. The characters are completely unlikeable and this seems to be a tale of their irresponsibility and inexplicable behaviours without any justification. Awful.

Unlikeable characters, unlikely story and the intonation and cadence of the reading was often odd

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