Harlequin Butterfly
by Toh Enjoe
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Description
A witty, dizzying literary caper about books, travel, and translation -- perfect for fans of David Mitchell and the work of Hideaki Anno This delightfully surreal novella follows the global pursuit of a mysterious writer who somehow writes in dozens of languages. An affluent entrepreneur named A.A. Abrams sinks seemingly infinite resources into the global pursuit of a writer about whom very little is known. Abrams' target, known as "Tomoyuki Tomoyuki," moves from one place to another, show more producing work in the local language before moving on to another part of the world. But how does Tomoyuki Tomoyuki move from one language to the next with such ease? Agents employed by the Abrams Institute attempt to make sense of the writer's erratic movements and baffling writing habits, but come to find that within each puzzle is yet another puzzle, waiting to be unraveled. One puzzle leads to another in this delightful literary caper. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
A butterfly frolics around my head. Yes, I know, it's not really there, it's an imaginary butterfly. And I also know how it happens. The butterfly was there in the beginning of A.A. Abram's adventures, or, I guess it caused the adventures. Adventures that are too wonderful, too incomprehensible, too comic in nature. But there are also times when you become paralyzed by the mystery of the novella itself, when you have to catch your breath and put it down or have a nice cup of tea and then pick up the book again. Not every reader will simply be charmed by Toh Enjoe's writing style and story, but once you are captivated by the story, you won't be able to let go. And maybe never, as I made clear with the first sentence of this review.
I wrote about this book for the Hugo-winning, Ignyte-winning blog Nerds of a Feather:
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2024/06/quick-round-my-recent-readings.html
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2024/06/quick-round-my-recent-readings.html
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Japanese Literature
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Author Information
50+ Works 287 Members
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Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- 道化師の蝶
- Original publication date
- 2012
- Original language*
- Japanese
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 57
- Popularity
- 539,747
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.79)
- Languages
- 5 — English, French, Japanese, Korean, Russian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 2
