Author: Yuko Tsushima
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 5 April 2018
Pages: 122
Format: eBook - PDF
Genre: Fiction
Source: ARC via NetGalley
Territory of Light is the luminous story of a young woman, living alone in Tokyo with her three-year-old daughter. Its twelve, stand-alone fragments follow the first year of her separation from her husband. The novel is full of light, sometimes comforting and sometimes dangerous: sunlight streaming through windows, dappled light in the park, distant fireworks, dazzling floodwater, desaturated streetlamps and earth-shaking explosions. The seemingly artless prose is beautifully patterned: the cumulative effect is disarmingly powerful and images remain seared into your retina for a long time afterwards. (Goodreads Synopsis)
Having previously enjoyed a short story/novella by Tsushima, I was keen to read more, and Territory of Light didn't disappoint. This story does follow a standard timeline, but it does so in the form of a series of vignettes, looking at the life of a woman with a young child as she separates from her husband and branches out alone. Therefore, there is no clear plot or ending outside of that scenario. It's really more of a snapshot. The constant imagery of light is beautifully handled through the novel, and I adore Tsushima's descriptive, lyrical prose. Territory of Light is a delight to read and should appeal to readers of modern, thoughtful fiction. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more works by this author in the future.
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