Amélie Nothomb

Food is in short supply and the cold is unbearable. In a tantalizing ménage à trois between a professor, his assistant, and a student, only the books bear witness to their plight.Amélie Nothomb is the award-winning author of 13 novels, including Hygiène de l’assassin; Stupeur et tremblements, winner of the Grand Prix …

Published in English for the first time, Nothomb's award-winning novel tells the story of a reclusive and dying Nobel laureate author who grants access to five journalists. But what they find is far from the literary luminary they imagined.

According to ancient Japanese protocol, foreigners deigning to approach the emperor did so only with fear and trembling. Terror and self-abasement conveyed respect. Amélie, our well-intentioned and eager young Western heroine, goes to Japan to spend a year working at the Yumimoto Corporation. Returning to the land …