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"A graceful novel of a graceful city. David Joiner’s Kanazawa interweaves four love affairs, echoing the fantastical writings of the early 20th century writer Izumi Kyoka. At the story’s heart lies the enigmatic bond between Emmitt’s wife’s parents, with a secret only revealed in the novel’s dramatic climax. The other three love affairs, with their own enigmas, are Emmitt’s own - for his wife Mirai, for his adoptive city of Kanazawa, and for his muse Kyoka."

—Alex Kerr, author of Lost Japan and Finding the Heart Sutra

"Atmospheric... and shibui. A quietly captivating tale of life and art in Kanazawa. Slowly sinks its hooks in and doesn't let go."⁠

—Robert Whiting, author Tokyo Junkie

"The grand old city of Kanazawa, its lush historic environs and rich cultural legacy form the setting of this compelling narrative. Kanazawa weaves an intriguing story of a Japanese family worthy of the best of Japanese literature.”

—Roger Pulvers, author of Liv

"In Kanazawa, David Joiner has written a book not unlike its titular city, with great historical depths hidden beneath a deceptively tranquil surface. A story of misunderstandings, miscommunications and family secrets centered around a marriage that seems doomed to fall apart under the weight of unspoken resentments. Above all, Kanazawa drips with a sense of place, the setting much more than just a back drop to the action; Joiner shows that there are plenty of stories taking place outside the vortex of Tokyo. Tense, moving, and subtly gripping, Kanazawa is a welcome addition to the books-about-Japan shelf."

—Iain Maloney, author of The Only Gaijin in the Village

“There is a zen mastery in the writing here, a complete control over the characters and story, but not enough to dry it out. The few surprises that change the characters’ directions are gentle, minor, but fascinating in how they ripple through [Kanazawa]. There is a bit of Henry James here, where progression and movement are released as if through a sluice, gently raising the water-level so as to allow the narration just the room it needs to maneuver into your subconscious.”

–Erik Raschke, author of To the Mountain and The Book of Samuel

“[Joiner] engages readers’ senses as a way of introducing his beautiful surroundings, describing sedate machiya homes, carafes of hot sake, aromas of temple incense, the prick of a snail shell on a lip. By keeping his sentences and structure simple, Joiner allows his decidedly Western prose to reflect a sense of Asian place without making Asia seem “exotic,” especially important in a plot that centers on an American husband wanting to stay in Kanazawa while his Asian wife seeks a life in Tokyo. More important, however, is the author’s deep study of and devotion to the works of Kyōka Izumi, a pre-war Japanese novelist…”

–Bethanne Patrick, Literary Hub

“In Kanazawa, David Joiner delivers a slow-burning family drama reminiscent of a film by Yasujiro Ozu or Hirokazu Koreeda…Each scene is quietly painted and, even in distress, holds some comfort…[Joiner’s writing] treats language as sacred and uses it with delicacy and respect.”

–Tina deBellegarde, Books on Asia

“Kanazawa produces with words a similar effect to wandering around an old city; even if it’s unfamiliar territory, the texture of the textual space that David Joiner has created thrums with this history as the plot slowly and deliberately unfolds…Joiner’s patient attention to the interiority of his characters and a strong sense of place create a moving portrayal of the messiness of relationships and the ways that all the things we hope to bury in the past stay with us.”

—Reid Bartholomew, World Literature Today

“[A]n homage to Japanese culture, the city of Kanazawa, and the Kanazawan writer Izumi Kyoka.”

–Dontaná McPherson-Joseph, Foreword Reviews

“Joiner manages to craft a nuanced story…[It’s] a Kawabata novel, The Sound of the Mountain, that comes to mind when reading Joiner’s work…Kanazawa is an enjoyable look at an interesting city and the problems faced when people have different expectations.”

—TonysReadingList.wordpress.com

“Kanazawa isn’t just a story about an American man in Japan and his wife. It is a tribute to the city of Kanazawa…Joiner’s passion for the places and authors within the novel is obvious.”

—ABasketofWords.com

“Ephemerality is exactly the intangible essence that Joiner mystifies and sentimentalizes in his writing – a cultural quality that few non-Japanese writers understand so well.”

—Ella Kelleher, Asia Media International

“[Kanazawa] is both a sensitive portrayal of the struggles of an international marriage and a paean to the city in which it is set.”

–Iain Maloney, The Japan Times

"The greatest strength of the book is the way it unfurls, slowly but surely, like tendrils of warmth from a cup of sake that spread from your hands to your soul...Joiner has achieved an incredible feat in making a story whose lifeforce is art seem so effortless and devoid of artifice...the novel is the literary equivalent of superimposing a map of the human condition over a map of the city of Kanazawa. It is a story to come back to time and time again, since each reading can reveal a new layer, a new motif, a new passage that rings out beautiful and true."

–Viktorija Blazeska, MyMurmuringBones.wordpress.com

“[A]n enjoyable read that moves along quite well and gives a satisfying sense of this corner of Japan.”

–M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review

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APRIL 30, 2021

My publisher, Stone Bridge Press, has just entered Kanazawa, my second novel, into their catalog for new releases. And though it’s not slated for release until January 25, 2022, it’s already available for pre-order. Bookshop.org is selling it with a slight discount here:

https://bookshop.org/books/kanazawa/9781611720716

Of course, it’s also available through my publisher:

https://www.stonebridge.com/catalog-2020/Kanazawa

And through Amazon in the U.S.:

https://www.amazon.com/Kanazawa-David-Joiner/dp/1611720710/

Also, I wanted to take a moment to share the novel’s cover design, the image of which is above. It comes from a woodblock print by Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) and depicts an old lane in the Shimo-Hondamachi neighborhood of Kanazawa in 1921.

This is me near the top of Hakusan, probably around four hours after setting out from the base station at Bettodeai. Our group was fortunate with the weather that day, as rain usually falls at some point during one’s climb. Incidentally, in KANAZAWA…

This is me near the top of Hakusan, probably around four hours after setting out from the base station at Bettodeai. Our group was fortunate with the weather that day, as rain usually falls at some point during one’s climb. Incidentally, in KANAZAWA this is where the protagonist, Emmitt, searches for his father-in-law after the latter disappears from a sumo festival in a nearby mountain town.

In the middle of May 2020, I checked my email and found that Stone Bridge Press (SBP) had offered to publish my second novel, KANAZAWA. Obviously, I was thrilled, as I’ve long been a huge fan of the books SBP has put out – mainly books that deal with Japan. In between the publication of my first novel, LOTUSLAND, and this one, already seven years have gone by. During that time, I not only wrote KANAZAWA, but I also revised an older novel set in the Lower Mekong Basin of Cambodia and Vietnam, and wrote another novel set in Japan, THE HERON CATCHERS, which is scheduled to be released in late 2023. Both KANAZAWA and THE HERON CATCHERS, I hope, are told in the tradition of both the best expatriate fiction and Japanese fiction in translation.

What is KANAZAWA about? Here is a short summary:

In Kanazawa, the first literary novel in English to be set in this storied Japanese city, Emmitt’s future plans collapse when his wife, Mirai, suddenly backs out of negotiations to purchase their dream home. Disappointed, he’s surprised to discover Mirai’s subtle pursuit of a life and career in Tokyo, a city he dislikes. 

Harmony is further disrupted when Emmitt’s search for a more meaningful life in Japan leads him to quit an unsatisfying job at a local university. In the fallout, he finds himself helping his mother-in-law translate Kanazawa’s most famous author, Izumi Kyoka, into English.

While continually resisting Mirai’s efforts to move to Tokyo, Emmitt becomes drawn into the mysterious death thirty years prior of a mutual friend of Mirai’s parents. It is only when he and his father-in-law climb the mountain where the man died that he learns the somber truth, and in turn discovers what the future holds for him and his wife.

Alex Kerr, celebrated Japanologist and award-winning author of Lost Japan, calls excerpts of KANAZAWA that he read “an excellent introduction to Kyoka, my favorite Japanese writer of the 20th century.” Rosemary Ahern, a former publishing executive and editor at Simon Shuster, Penguin, and Other Press, describes KANAZAWA as a novel “as carefully plotted as a poem, of quiet charms and quiet transformations, all of which I find fresh and appealing. You have something special here.”

KANAZAWA is set in the city of Kanazawa where I live, with chapters also taking place in Kaga Onsen and Shiramine, and on Hakusan (Japan’s second-most sacred mountain). It is the first English-language literary novel set in Kanazawa.

I’ll have more to add to my webpage going forward, and I may even give this website a facelift soon. In the meantime, I’ll include below some photos of Hakusan that I took when I climbed it. Perhaps later I’ll upload photos of other places I’ve visited that also appear in KANAZAWA.

 
 
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This was taken at sunrise after spending the night at the lodge below this shrine. The goddess Shirayama-hime is believed to be enshrined here along with Izanami and Izanagi – the original spirit-gods of Japan, of the Japanese people, and, according to Shinto doctrine, of heaven and the universe itself.

 
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The sun rising over Hakusan. I’ve heard it said that on a clear day one can actually see Mt. Fuji in the far distance. If I remember correctly, it was 2°C at the summit that morning, and the wind was incredibly strong. The elevation here is 2702 m (8865 ft).