Natsu Miyashita's novel "The Forest of Wool and Steel" opens with nature: "the scent of the forest close by ... the earthy fragrance of autumn." Yet the narrator, 17-year-old Naoki Tomura, is not describing some forgotten grove, but instead his first experience with piano tuning inside a musty high school gymnasium in rural Hokkaido.
The Forest of Wool and Steel, by Natsu Miyashita, Translated by Phillip Gabriel.
224 pages