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304 pages, Hardcover
First published February 13, 2024
It's a beautiful thought, that the things of imagination and childhood are more real and appealing than any of the approximations we manage to build as adults. For these Dutch women, paradise was not to be found in the world around them. It was one step down, one step smaller, quiet and hidden away, a step closer to the light.
You watch the lady from around a half-closed screen, the cool paper brushing your cheek. Slowly, delicately, she makes her way across the courtyard toward her husband. Her wooden sandals tap against the stone, echoing among the castle roofs. In the maples and the ginkgo trees the birds are silent.
Far from the neon signs of Tokyo and the graceful temples of Kyoto lies the city of Kanazawa, curled against the western coast of Japan like a small gray dragon.