{"title":"Books by Keiichiro Hirano","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780231214919","title":"Eclipse – A Novel","description":"Winner, 2025-2026 Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize, Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia UniversityIn the late fifteenth century, a young Dominican friar sets out on a journey from Paris to Florence in search of manuscripts of pre-Christian philosophy. Along the way, he encounters an ascetic alchemist in a small village. As the young man falls under the spell of the alchemist’s quest for enlightenment, a series of disasters—culminating in a total solar eclipse—strikes the village, with profound consequences.   Keiichiro Hirano’s Eclipse was a meteoric literary sensation when it first appeared in 1998. Its author, still an undergraduate, was hailed as a prodigy; the book received Japan’s most prestigious literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, and became a bestseller. Set on the eve of the Renaissance in Europe, Eclipse depicts a society that is on the surface vastly different from modern-day Japan. Yet its account of a challenge to dualistic binaries and ossified worldviews holds striking contemporary resonance and philosophical depth. Taking the form of a memoir, Eclipse brings together an evocative portrayal of its historical setting, including the lore of medieval alchemy, with a rich literary lexicon, lush imagery, and psychological intricacy. This vivid translation offers Anglophone readers a vital work by one of Japan’s most distinctive voices.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56227647029621,"sku":"9780231214919","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780231214919_1662f553-7f7b-4d14-ba5e-7f73594bf40a.jpg?v=1786012715"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-keiichiro-hirano.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}