Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, Trinity College Dublin

Ourbook club welcomes people from all round the world for a discussion about a work of fiction which has recently been translated into English. We meet on Zoom once each month during Trinity's term time. Admission is free, and all are welcome. Our November book is: 

The Rainbow

by Yasunari Kawabata, translated from Japanese by Haydn Trowell.

[from the book's cover]:

With the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two half sisters - born to the same father but different mothers - struggle to make sense of the new world in which they are coming of age. Asako, the younger, has become obsessed with locating a third sibling, while also experiencing love for the first time, while Momoko, their father's first child - haunted by the loss of her kamikaze boyfriend and their final, disturbing days together - seeks comfort in a series of unhealthy romances. And both sisters find themselves unable to outrun the legacies of their late mothers. A thoughtful, probing novel about the enduring traumas of war, the unbreakable bonds of family and the inescapability of the past, The Rainbow is a searing, melancholy work from one of Japan's greatest writers.

Yasunari Kawabata was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1899 and before the Second World War had established himself as his country's leading novelist. Among his major works are Snow Country, A Thousand Cranes and The Master of Go. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, he died in 1972.

Haydn Trowell is an Australian translator of Japanese literature whose work has appeared in Granta, Electric Literature, and Words Without Borders. He has translated fiction by major prize-winning authors such as Yasunari Kawabata, Maki Kashimada, and Rie Qudan, and he has worked extensively with publishers in Australia, Japan, the UK, and the US. Haydn holds a PhD in translation studies from Monash University and has a background in both translation and creative writing. He delivers expertly crafted English renditions that capture the author’s unique voice and preserve the rich cultural nuances of the original, making each work feel authentic, engaging, and completely at home in its new language and environment.

If you enjoy events about literary translation, take a look at what else we have planned at the Centre, here.