{"product_id":"thorn-puller-book-hiromi-ito-9781737625308","title":"The Thorn Puller","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Sakutaro Hagiwara Prize and the Murasaki\nShikibu Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCaught between two cultures, award-winning author Hiromi Ito tackles subjects like aging, death, and suffering with dark humor, illuminating the bittersweet joys of being alive.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first novel to appear in English by award-winning author Hiromi Ito explores the absurdities, complexities, and challenges experienced by a woman\ncaring for her two families: her husband and daughters in California and her aging\nparents in Japan. As the narrator shuttles back and forth between these two\nstarkly different cultures, she creates a powerful and entertaining narrative\nabout what it means to live and die in a globalized society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIto has been described as a “shaman of poetry” because of her skill in allowing the voices of others to flow through her. Here she enriches her semi-autobiographical novel by channeling myriad voices drawn from Japanese folklore, poetry, literature, and pop culture. The result is a generic chimera—part poetry, part prose, part epic—a unique, transnational, polyvocal mode of storytelling. One throughline is a series of memories associated with the Buddhist bodhisattva Jizo, who helps to remove the “thorns” of human suffering.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49664513638673,"sku":"GOR013133217","price":5.01,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49742407827729,"sku":"NGR9781737625308","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51050515005713,"sku":"NIN9781737625308","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51329971978513,"sku":"CIN173762530XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52486415646993,"sku":"NLS9781737625308","price":11.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53175387881745,"sku":"CIN173762530XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53573858689297,"sku":"GOR014966574","price":4.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/173762530X.jpg?v=1751344771","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/products\/thorn-puller-book-hiromi-ito-9781737625308","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}