Island where red spider lilies bloom

Higanhua Nosaki Island

The first Taiwanese writer to win the 165th Akutagawa Prize, Japan's most important award in pure literature!

A girl with amnesia drifted from the other side of the ocean. A mysterious island that was isolated from the world.

Li Qinfeng has spent years brooding on this work, blending historical and cultural reflections, Western "utopia" and Eastern "Peach Blossom Spring" imagery, and using groundbreaking and bold language experiments, religion and legend, gender and queerness to weave a tender and poetic fantasy fable.

Floating in the subtropical sea lies an isolated island where red spider lilies bloom year-round. One day, a wounded young woman dressed in white drifts there and is rescued by a resident girl named Yuuna. Yuuna names the amnesiac girl Umi. With nowhere else to go, Umi wishes to stay on the island. However, the island elders warn her that to become a part of the island community, she must learn the island's language, spoken only by women (Women's Language), become a "Noro," and shoulder the responsibility of carrying on history.

Takuji, a boy of Umi's age, secretly learns the women's language. He doesn't understand why boys can't learn the women's language and become noro. What kind of complicated and confusing past does the island have?

Special inclusion——
The full text of the Akutagawa Prize Award Ceremony speech, "The Miracle of Survival," and the exclusive Chinese-language postscript, "I Never Planned to Become the Pride of Taiwan."

The Traditional Chinese version of this book is still translated by the author himself.

Media book review recommendations

"The Island Where Red Spider Lilies Bloom" describes in detail everything from vegetation to terrain, various rituals and customs, and is filled with a breathtaking worldview that is like a science fiction or fantasy work.
Precisely because Japanese is not the author's native language, he can approach Japanese from a relative perspective, which is a profound point.
This work encompasses themes such as a global pandemic, war, and xenophobia, and further incorporates prejudice against sexually disadvantaged groups. It is a critical novel and a grand speculative novel.
This book is the ultimate piece of Japanese literature. —Masaki Enomoto, "North Country Shimbun."

Li Qinfeng, who has always used lesbianism as a main theme to discuss modern daily themes, depicted a fantasy world in this work and won the Akutagawa Prize.
The relationship between these three people is surprisingly fraught with issues of discrimination, such as Okinawa, Taiwan, gender, homosexuality, and language. These aren't mere quotations; the book's central point is that these seemingly single-item issues are fundamentally interconnected, making it impossible to single out just one and resolve them. —Ito Shigetaka, Weekly Shincho.

Author Li Qinfeng is from Taiwan. His previous work, "Starry Night," boldly addressed the Uyghur issue. As the title suggests, the stars and moon are neither dependent on nor subordinate to others. Perhaps this is the author's hope that they can move towards a viable future without being deprived of their light.
The narrator of this work, which received the Akutagawa Prize, does not express aspirations but instead incorporates a vision and urges readers to continue to reflect on the issues raised in the work. —Saori Kuramoto, Sankei Shimbun.

"The Island Where Red Spider Lilies Bloom" questions the imbalanced history of men and women. Simultaneously, its potential for queer history allows for a voice for countless marginalized people throughout the world. Facing narratives centered on heterosexual values ​​and cisgender identity, this attempt re-questions the history depicted in these "male terms."
Even in the world we live in, queer history has only just begun. For this reason, I hope to have the privilege of meeting the protagonists of that book as they continue to grow and mature, creating a new world in the future. Years of faith and waiting are essential. During that waiting period, the most important thing is not to rule out possibilities. This book is a commitment to that faith. —Iwakawa Arisa, "Literary World."

2022-06-01

聯合文學

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9789751810106