Tokyo Ueno Station (novel)

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Tokyo Ueno Station
First edition cover (Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 2014)
AuthorYū Miri
Original titleJR Ueno-Eki Kōenguchi (JR上野駅公園口)
TranslatorMorgan Giles
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Set inTokyo
PublisherKawade Shobō Shinsha
Publication date
2014
Published in English
2019
AwardsNational Book Award for Translated Literature (2020)

Tokyo Ueno Station (Japanese: JR上野駅公園口, Hepburn: JR Ueno-Eki Kōenguchi) is a 2014 novel by Zainichi Korean author Yū Miri.

The novel reflects the author's engagement with historical memory and margins by incorporating themes of a migrant laborer from northeastern Japan and his work on Olympic construction sites in Tokyo, as well as the 11 March 2011 disaster.[1] In November 2020, Tokyo Ueno Station won the National Book Award for Translated Literature for the English translation by translator Morgan Giles.[2][3]

Reception[edit]

In its starred review, Kirkus Reviews called it Yu's "more restrained and mature novel" and praised her fusion of "personal and national history."[4]

Lauren Elkin of The Guardian wrote that the novel "most effectively conveys its concerns through dense layers of narrative, through ambiguity rather than specific fates."[5]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Iwata-Weickgenannt, Kristina (2019). "The roads to disaster, or rewriting history from the margins—Yū Miri's JR Ueno Station Park Exit". Contemporary Japan. 31 (2): 180–196. doi:10.1080/18692729.2019.1578848. S2CID 166752041.
  2. ^ "'Tokyo Ueno Station' by Yu Miri wins U.S. book award". The Japan Times. 19 November 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  3. ^ Alter, Alexandra (19 November 2020). "Charles Yu Wins National Book Award for 'Interior Chinatown'". The New York Times.
  4. ^ "Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu ; translated by Morgan Giles". Kirkus Reviews. 29 March 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  5. ^ Elkin, Lauren (3 April 2019). "Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri review – haunting novel of life after death". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 December 2020.