10th October, 2016

October Author of the Month: Jayne Joso

Jayne Joso is our October Author of the Month.
We recently published Jayne’s latest novel, My Falling Down House, which tells the story of a young Japanese salaryman who finds himself jobless, homeless and struggling to hold on to his sanity as he slowly attempts to rebuild his life from within a run-down, traditional wood and paper house.
Jayne Joso is a critically acclaimed writer, who in 2012 was awarded the Coracle International Writer’s Residency in Ireland. Her first novel, Soothing Music for Stray Cats (2009, Alcemi), was heralded as ‘the debut of a distinctive voice in contemporary British Fiction’ by social historian Joe Moran. Her latest novel, My Falling Down House, has already been praised widely, with Sho Konishi, Professor in Modern Japanese History at the University of Oxford, calling it ‘a remarkable achievement’.
October is an exciting month, as you can meet Jayne (and even purchase a signed copy of her book) on 20 October at the Daiwa Foundation, where Jayne will be hosting the event Joso’s Japan: Wood and Paper Houses. Here, Jayne will talk us through the essential elements of the Japanese wood and paper house, and how one of these enigmatic spaces came to settle itself as a character in its own right in My Falling Down House. Jayne will also focus on the increasing number of abandoned houses in Japan, presenting her photography of these spaces taken in remote parts of Japan such as Echizenhama and Teradomari.
 
Find out more about Jayne on her Seren author page.