Cloud Catcher

A wild goose chase

A New Benchmark in World Literature // Yoko Tawada // Captivating Masterpiece // Based on Personal Experiences!
A sanctuary for avoidant personalities and self-destructive impulses
The modern person's last dream and adventure
Not only the killer returns to the scene, but also the novelist.
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【Synopsis】
“I have a strange quirk: I quickly become infatuated with unusual and eccentric people.”
This book is a full-length novel composed of 12 independent yet closely connected chapters. The story begins when a young man comes to “my” home on the Elbe River in Germany to buy a bilingual poetry collection. He wants to wrap it in Japanese-patterned paper and tie it with a ribbon to give to his girlfriend. Just as “I” am looking for wrapping paper, the man disappears. A year later, the man sends a letter from prison, stating that he is actually the "culprit" in a certain case...
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【Editor's Recommendations】
🪩A major work in the "Tawada Universe," winner of both the Yomiuri Prize for Literature and the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award
More typical, more free! Yoko Tawada's cross-genre writing representative, introduced for the first time!
Tawada, the witch who manipulates language, is considered a contemporary successor to Beckett, Joyce, and Kafka for her unclassifiable writing.
In this book, she breaks through the wall between fiction and non-fiction with her unconventional writing.
Blending reality and illusion, incorporating details that are difficult to distinguish between true and false
She never repeats herself, but constantly seeks possibilities for innovation.
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🪩12 fascinating "dangerous individuals," 12 captivating "dates with eccentrics"
Both real and illusory, adapted from the author's personal experiences: "I want to tell everyone about this thrilling memory of encountering a criminal!"
Prison scholar, child prodigy experiment, husband-killing nanny, identity thief, exiled poet…
Before reading this novel, you would never have thought that everyday life was so fraught with peril.
And the greatest danger and threat is the undercurrent lurking in your heart.
Stop, open your eyes – passersby, imperceptible shifts, fleeting sighs, elusive evasions…
They may be signals of self-destruction, or more likely, omens of a magnificent adventure!
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🪩A stagnant life is no different from being in prison; being "normal" is actually incredibly cruel.
Then escape! Take that "strangest" part of yourself and hide in the clouds created by stories and words.
As long as you can sleep soundly, rewriting the world is fine – at least in this novel, you are safe!
Everyone who suppresses themselves is a killer of themselves.
Peculiarities misunderstood by others, unhealed wounds, defenses etched into habit…
They are allergies and colds that have not healed for decades, one after another.
At least once, escape into the clouds and live an unpredictable life.
Reawaken immunity to the ordinary, the boring, the unchanging!
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🪩A collection of strange adventure stories that snatch away common sense and senses, as elusive as clouds!
An undefinable reading experience, a double fall from language to dreams.
“Losing perception between seriousness and playfulness, that sense of instability makes our feet collapse.
Tawada thus pulls us into her world.”
——Professor Kimihiko Abe, University of Tokyo (Japan)
“Elusive, boundless haziness – this is the dictionary definition of ‘雲をつかむ’ (kumo wo tsukamu, to grasp at clouds),
and it is truly a perfectly fitting title.
These magical stories that gently lift readers into mid-air, and the imagination that gushes forth like clouds,
unfold a new landscape never seen above ground.”
——Writer and translator Miho Matsunaga (Japan)
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🪩Renowned translator Lake × book designer Xi He // Dreamlike presentation, hardcover with double dust jackets, handy format.
In the shimmering, out-of-focus dreamscape, an unspoken idealistic elegy still flows.
Translator Lake's writing is both moving and restrained, delicately interpreting the multifaceted complexity of Tawada's world.
Skillfully recreates Tawada's beloved world within the clouds.
110*185mm small 32mo, the entire book uses paper with the grain running parallel to the spine, making it soft to turn and resistant to yellowing.
Through reading, reach a realm only accessible through books.
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【Celebrity Recommendations】
It is precisely the author's distinctive linguistic experimentalism, coupled with fluid and oscillating sensory experiences, and the humor and absurdity inherent in the free-flowing narrative voice itself, like clouds, that collectively form a peak in Tawada's creation.
——Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs evaluation
How can such a comfortable article be written? It’s truly admirable. The exquisite and light transitions, the wit contained in the sharp and cunning perspectives… Above all, the article always moves in a certain direction, steadily leading the reader forward with a strong force.
——Professor Kimihiko Abe, University of Tokyo (Japan)
Every word and sentence of Tawada’s work seems to be able to swallow a person whole.
——Reader comment

2025-08-01

广西师范大学出版社

wild spring

296

9787559883353