'Honeybees and Distant Thunder' is an ode to nature informing art and life

The glittering, high-stakes world of classical piano competitions is not a place people often find themselves: It takes incredible dedication and expertise to gain entry to such a realm. However, Riku Onda’s novel “Honeybees and Distant Thunder” immerses readers into the lives of musicians that feel both fresh and familiar.

The story starts with a prelude in Paris where 16-year-old Jin Kazama is auditioning to participate in a piano competition. Jin is an outlier among the privileged musicians who typically compete: Without a settled home or an instrument to call his own, Jin lives with his single father, an itinerant beekeeper who travels across Europe for his work. Though the musical prodigy seems more at home in the soil and sunshine than at concert halls, when seated at a piano, he’s a revelation.

Despite his humble background compared to his peers, Jin is the protege and student of a recently deceased and much revered figure within the classical world, Yuji Van Hoffmann, and the maestro’s recommendation supporting his audition means he can’t be summarily dismissed. Yet the young boy’s distinctive playing style causes controversy among the competition judges that reverberates throughout the novel. In a subtle refrain, Onda asks over and over again: What is genius?

“Honeybees and Distant Thunder” is well-suited to Japanese sensibilities — Japan is the birthplace of the famed Suzuki method and classical music enjoys continued popularity here — and the Japanese original has had critical and commercial success, winning both the Naoki Prize and the Booksellers Award in 2017. It was also adapted into a film, “Listen to the Universe,” in 2019. Now translated into English by Philip Gabriel, the vibrant intensity of the characters unfolds page by page as Onda takes her readers through the competition. Most of the story takes place outside of Tokyo at the fictional Yoshigae International Piano Competition, and the action follows the structure of the two-week event. Starting with over 100 musicians, the pool of competitors narrows down to six finalists over three rounds of performances before one winner is selected.

In addition to Jin, Onda focuses on three competitors: Aya Eiden, another child prodigy making a comeback after suddenly retiring from competitions for several years following her mother’s death; Masaru Carlos Levi Anatole, the "Prince of Julliard" and an obvious favorite to take home the top prize; and Akashi Takashima, the oldest entrant in the competition, determined to grab his last chance at a musical career.

Onda weaves together multiple storylines to magical effect, detailing each character’s fears and aspirations as they move through the competition. Resilience, tragedy, romance, expectations, passion and friendship echo across the interwoven narrative threads, and at every turn, Onda considers how art informs life and vice versa.

The writer’s inspiration for the novel traces back to the real-life controversy and triumph of Rafal Blechacz, the then-unknown Polish competitor who unexpectedly qualified for the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition at a Paris audition before triumphing at the prestigious XV International Chopin Piano Competition in 2005.

However, Onda’s first concrete image for the novel started with the idea of genius.

“At first, I imagined a scene where Jin is standing in a field, and he turns his body toward the sound of honeybees,” Onda tells The Japan Times via email. That evocative scene became the first chapter of the novel that centers music as part of the natural environment, comparing the bees to “a sublime, magisterial music that filled the world.” Onda says the other main characters fell into place from there. “I imagined Aya playing the piano with Jin, and I thought of Masaru as her childhood friend. While those three are geniuses, the hard worker Akashi appeared.”

Although the perspectives of these four competitors are brought into harmony with Onda’s omniscient narration, minor characters such as a piano tuner, a stage manager, a documentary filmmaker and even a local florist contribute compelling notes to the novel. All together, it’s the range of voices and views that enables Onda to keep music — as Jin says, “the very sound of life” — the focus of her novel.

Onda makes it clear that listening to music is more than a form of entertainment or a way to pass time, it is an essential part of life: She compares live music to telling stories, experiencing nature and even cleaning to reveal and polish all the nooks and crannies of a large home.

“Although today music is sometimes regarded as just part of the landscape, like background music, I hope readers will realize the joy and once in a lifetime miracle of listening to live music,” she says.

In Japan, copies of the Japanese-language novel include a CD of different selections mentioned in the story, but overseas readers can find the playlist on Spotify or other streaming platforms. The soundtrack includes classical favorites such as the works of Chopin, Mozart and Bach, as well as pieces by less mainstream masters like Sergei Rachmaninoff and Bela Bartok. Onda believes the book’s success in Japan is a sign of listeners shifting their attention toward classical music and finding ways to incorporate it into their everyday lives.

“Now that various musical genres have been fragmented and their power diffused, I feel that once again acoustic classical music is the freshest and most aggressive music,” she says.