Go

Kazuki Kaneshiro graduated from Keio University and made his literary debut with Revolution No. 3 in 1998, winning the Shosetsu Gendai Prize for New Writers. In 2000, Kaneshiro won the Naoki Prize for GO, which tackles issues of ethnicity and discrimination in Japanese society. The novel’s film adaptation went on to win every major award in Japan in 2002. Many of his works have been made into films or manga, and Kaneshiro has been adept at working synergistically across multiple formats and genres, writing the original concepts and scripts for the TV series SP and CRISIS.Takami Nieda was born in New York City and has degrees in English from Stanford University and Georgetown University. She has translated and edited more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction from Japanese into English and has received numerous grants in support of her translations, including the PEN/Heim Translation Fund for the translation of Kazuki Kaneshiro’s GO. Her translations have also appeared in Words Without Borders, Asymptote, and PEN America. Nieda teaches writing and literature at Seattle Central College in Washington State.

“Kaneshiro integrates themes of ethnic heritage, prejudice, identity, and belonging into Sugihara’s relationships with his parents, friends, and girlfriend (from whom he withholds his given name, Lee, for fear of losing her). The witty, sarcastic narrative voice conveys great poignancy, as when Sugihara confesses his true ethnicity and hears: ‘Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence.’ A memorable, conflicted, defiant protagonist and an idiosyncratic love story drive this thought-provoking page-turner.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Takami Nieda provides gratifying anglophone access to Kaneshiro’s searing ruminations—heightened by Malcolm X and Bruce Lee, softened by Miles Davis and Brahms—on history, xenophobia, and, of course, love.” —Booklist“Written with poignant authenticity…The cross-cultural themes are universal and, with heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the current emphasis on boundaries and otherness, it is a perfect time to meet the hotheaded yet vulnerable young Korean who took Japan by storm.” —The Japan Times