Lesley Downer¡¯s seven books range widely in genre and subject. Here she reflects on their inspiration and her experiences writing them.
¡°On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey into a Lost Japan¡± (1989): Downer¡¯s first book, a travelogue, recounts a journey she made in the footsteps of haiku poet Matsuo Basho¡¯s 17th-century work, ¡°Oku no Hosomichi¡± (¡°The Narrow Road to the Deep North¡°).
¡°I was thinking about the book and I thought, ¡®I don¡¯t need to go to 1,000 farming villages, I need to go to one farming village.¡¯ And the locals told me all the history of their village ¡ª that Basho had been there, and written haiku. They were all very into this. There was even a rock that [popular 12th-century folk-hero warrior-monk] Benkei had thrown in the garden of the headman.¡±
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