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Author Abe's Book Reviews

The Ark Sakura
The Ark Sakura (translated from Japanese into English by Juliet Winters Carpenter) is about an intelligent social outcast (nicknamed Pig or Mole, depending on who you ask), who, fearing imminent nuclear war, makes his home in an abandoned quarry. He spends years of his life stockpiling resources necassary for human survival. He not only secures enough supplies to keep himself going for years after the bombs drop, but enough to support an entire small...
The Woman in the Dunes
A big-city schoolteacher on a trip to the dunes of Japan's Southwest to collect insects is taken in by a village and given room at a young widow's place, which is located in a huge pit in the local desert. The next day, he discovers the truth behind the villagers' kindness: he's been taken captive to help the woman in the shoveling and collection of sand to sell to industries as well as prevent landslides. Angry at this, he attempts several ways to escap...