Jeff Talarigo

Her expectations about living out her life as a Japanese pearl diver shattered by the discovery that she has leprosy, a nineteen-year-old girl is rejected by her family and exiled to a leprosarium on the island of Nagashima, where she forges a new identity among fellow patients and rediscovers her love for the sea. A first novel. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.

The Pearl Diver

Der Ginsengjäger lebt auf der chinesischen Seite der Grenze zwischen China und Nordkorea. Als er sich in eine aus Nordkorea geflüchtete junge Frau verliebt, muss er sich mit der Realität um sich herum auseinandersetzen.

Roman

Der Ginsengjäger

In 1948, a nineteen-year-old pearl diver's dreams of spending her life combing the waters of Japan’s Inland Sea are shattered when she discovers she has leprosy. By law, she is exiled to an island leprosarium, where she is stripped of her dignity and instructed to forget her past. Her name is erased from her family records, and she is forced to select a new one. To the two thousand patients on the island of Nagashima, she becomes Miss Fuji. Although drugs arrest the course of Miss Fuji's disease, she cannot leave the colony. Instead, she becomes a caretaker to the other patients, and through the example of their courage, she gains insight into the deep wellspring of strength she will need to reclaim her freedom. Written with precision and eloquence, The Pearl Diver is a dazzling meditation on isolation and community, cruelty and compassion.

Bruce Smith

Bianca Stone

Bruce Bond

Carolyn Finney

Colum McCann

Philip Metres

Kazim Ali

Diana Whitney

Ru Freeman

Jerome Rothenberg

Fred D'Aguiar

Sheryl St. Germain

William Heyen

Cynthia Hogue

Arthur Sze

Nin Andrews

Dominique Christina

Kristina Marie Darling

Remica Bingham-Risher

Shara McCallum

Shin Yu Pai

Mihaela Moscaliuc

Tanure Ojaide

Carol Moldaw

Michael Waters

Angelique Palmer

Rita Banerjee

Tim Seibles

Haleh Liza Gafori

Morowa Yejide

Christal Brown

Dante DiStefano

Claire Bateman

Nell-Lynn Perera

D. M. Aderibigbe

Christine Gelineau

H.L. Hix

Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees

Felice Belle

Alycia D. Jenkins

Diane Raptosh

Lynn Kozak

Steven Reese

Jeff Diteman

Damon Honeycutt

Rashidah Ismaili Abu-Baker

Sign & Breath is a new critical anthology that takes a different approach to exploring these questions: What is poetry? What defines voice? Featuring a range of contemporary artists, many of whom work across different mediums and genres, Sign & Breath introduces the reader to one page that sings in any genre – prose, fiction, poetry, spoken word, hybrid forms, and song – across diverse traditions. Rather than define poetry as a genre with conventions, traditions, codes, and modalities, this book features poetry as a faculty that thrums in all written and spoken art. Readers are introduced to a text followed by a discussion with the author about creating the piece, ties to creative lineage, and the definition of voice through their practice. This anthology contributes to the dialogue among genres which will reframe understanding of poetry as an aesthetic experience of language. With one page that sings in any genre, Sign & Breath presents a new, inclusive perspective on poetry while two questions remain: Do we have a clearer understanding of what defines poetry? Do we have a clearer understanding of voice?

Sign & Breath

A Chinese ginseng hunter lives alone in the valley, where he spends his days preparing for winter. He is scarcely aware of the larger world until shadowy figures, floating bodies, and rumors of murder begin to intrude on his cherished solitude. Then, on a trip to Yanji, he meets a young North Korean prostitute. Through her vivid tales, the tragedy occurring across the river unfolds, and soon the hunter realizes that the fates of the young woman and four others rest in his hands.An unforgettable look at life along the fragile border between China and North Korea, The Ginseng Hunter is a confirmation of Jeff Talarigo's talent for finding humanity in the most unexpected places.

The Ginseng Hunter

A Novel

In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees is a disquieting allegory of the clash between the occupied and the occupier.

In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees

Die Perlentaucherin

"As much a book of poetry as a novel, as much a symphony as a memoir, this is an extraordinary book from a writer at the top of his powers. Reminiscent of Berger and Calvino, Jeff Talarigo manages to capture the breadth and circumference of story-telling, while also giving us a privileged insight into the daily life and dreams of Gaza." —Colum McCann, Thirteen Ways of Looking In the mode of J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians and Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees engages poetic language, mythic themes, and childlike perspectives to offer an original approach to a conflict that has become hardened and polarized. These linked stories of an American’s experience in Gaza expose the seven-decade long Palestinian diaspora in a disquieting allegory of the clash between the occupied and the occupier. In a place where political posturing, bloody war, journalistic witness, and even patient negotiation have yielded so little understanding, we enter the cemetery of the orange trees, where urchins kite dead birds, goats utter wisdom, camels and donkeys huddle together, and merchandise magically passes underground through the tunnels of Gaza. But this is no fairy tale or bestiary. In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees is a waking, attentive dream-journal, leading us back to a place where hatred, strife, and even human language itself might sing. Jeff Talarigo is the author of two novels: The Pearl Diver and The Ginseng Hunter. He has lived in Gaza and Japan, and currently resides in Oakland, California.

Jeff Talarigo

About

Books

Join the club