Acclaimed novelist Yuko Tsushima spent her lifetime reflecting light on the shadowed voices in Japan, inspired by her own experiences as a single mother facing the censure of a traditionally patriarchal society. In her later years, Tsushima explored the marginalized in Japanese history, writing from the perspective of ostracized, biracial children during the American Occupation in "Yamaneko Domu" and from that of a part-Ainu girl of the early Edo Period (1603-1868) in "Jakka Duxuni," following her as she migrates to Macau and Batavia.
Awarded numerous accolades over her long career, including the Noma, Kawabata and Tanizaki Prizes, Tsushima's work has been translated into a dozen languages and has a particular following in France. Penguin Classics' upcoming release of one of her most famous early works, "Territory of Light," will again illuminate for English readers this powerfully perspicuous author, two years after her untimely passing from lung cancer.