The Last Children of Tokyo

By: Yoko Tawada, Margaret Mitsutani - translation

Yoshiro thinks he might never die. A hundred years old and counting, he is one of Japan's many 'old-elderly'; men and women who remember a time before the air and the sea were poisoned, before terrible catastrophe prompted Japan to shut itself off from the rest of the world. He may live for decades yet, but he knows his beloved great-grandson – born frail and prone to sickness – might not survive to adulthood. Day after day, it takes all of Yoshiro's sagacity to keep Mumei alive.

As hopes for Japan's youngest generation fade, a secretive organisation embarks on an audacious plan to find a cure – might Yoshiro's great-grandson be the key to saving the last children of Tokyo?

©2014 Yoko Tawada (P)2026 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

'A mini-epic of eco-terror, family drama and speculative fiction ... a book unlike any other.' (The Guardian)

'An open-hearted fable ... Tawada's uber-isolationist neo-Japan is much less cute than Wes Anderson's. It's also much, much funnier.' (Financial Times)

'The Last Children of Tokyo shows a land tottering on the brink of disaster but it is also a joyful exploration of language, a constantly surprising and exciting romp.' (Daisy Johnson, author of Fen)