‘Kanazawa’ is a tribute to life outside of Japan’s well-known cities

CULTURE / Books

‘Kanazawa’ is a tribute to life outside of Japan’s well-known cities

“Kanazawa” author David Joiner first moved to Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the mid-1990s after graduating from college in the United States with a degree in Japanese Studies.

By Iain Maloney
Contributing writer

Jan 22, 2022

For readers — and publishers — outside Japan, the capital and the nation are often conflated, so a novel set anywhere else is always welcome.

“Japan is so much more than its major cities,” author David Joiner says, “and Kanazawa (in Ishikawa Prefecture) is a great example of that.”

Joiner’s new novel, “Kanazawa,” is both a sensitive portrayal of the struggles of an international marriage and a paean to the city in which it is set. “Kanazawa is pretty small,” he continues, “offering what a large city and a rural town might offer if you squeezed the two together. In some ways you get the best of both worlds.”