Kamo no Chamo - Hojoki

Hojoko, ("An Account of My Hut" or "The Ten Foot Square Hut") was written in 1212. It shows the diversity of Japanese medieval life. For a book that old it appears very up to date as many of its topics sound all too familiar to modern man: politics, social problems and natural disasters. People faced problems similar to ours today and so we have to ask ourselves: has mankind learned at all?

Hojoki (An Account of My Hut) is one of the most important works of Japanese literature. Its new sino-japanese style became the basis for modern literature in Japan. It is especially well known for his opening:

The current of the flowing river does not cease, and yet the water is not the same water as before. The foam that floats on stagnant pools, now vanishing, now forming, never stays the same for long. So, too, it is with the people and dwellings of the world

Kamo no Chamo was born as Kamo no Nagaakira in 1153 or 1155. His father was head of Shimogamo Jinja, one of the most important Shinto shrines in Kyoto. Therefore the family had a good relationship with the Tenno which brought forward the father's career. Even the boy received a rank at court at the age of seven.
After the 12th century change of regimes the father lost his position in 1170. Soon after that the father died and Kama no Chamo's hope to succeed his father at the shrine vanished.

For the following thirteen years he lived at his family's estate, probably the hut mentioned in the book was placed here. During this period, he focused on music and poetry solely, which was quite typical for the Heian time). In his late twenties he became a student of the famous poet and Buddhist priest Shun'e. He released a collection of 106 poems and established himself among the poets of his time.
After being pretermitted of becoming the head of the Tadasu shrine he was able to become the head of a marginal shrine which provided him with a save income and rank.

From 1204 to 1209 he lived in Ohara, north of Kyoto in an established refuge for lords who were tired of their lives. Here they could rest for a while or step out of their official lives and become monks of the Tendai sect. But Chamo left Ohara in 1209 and retreated to a small hut in the mountains that a friend of the family offered him. Only in 1211 he was ready to leave his life in solitude behind, when he had the possibility to become the poetry teacher of the young Shogun. But negotiations weren't successful and he returned to the mountains where he wrote the following works:

mountains. There in Hino, he wrote his marginal writings.

- 1211 Mumyosho

- 1212 Hojoki

- 1214-1215 Hosshinshu - Collection about religious awaking.

Zoya Pirzad " Things We Left Unsaid"

The novel is placed in Abadan, a town near the Persian Gulf in southwestern Iran. Abadan is home to the world's biggest refinery which the town is town is built around. "Things we left unsaid" is set in 1962.

Clarisse, the novel's protagonist lives with her family in the town's Armenian community. She is the mother of two twin girls and an older teenage son. Her leftist husband works as an engineer and therby provides for a life in safety and moderate wealth.

She has no time time to think about her life, the life she'd like to lead or love. Her days are filled by cleaning the house, preparing meals and looking after the children. But this changes when a new family moves into the neighbourhood: a young widower moves to the house across the street with his daughter and his mother. She gets to know him as man that helps out, listens to her and even likes poetry as much as she does. For the first time she begins questioning the life she lives, her marriage and her own dreams. With her neighbor she actually starts to feel happy for the first time ever. But this happiness is not to last as her neighbor falls in love with a woman his age.
Beyond the personal development of Clarisse the book also is a wonderful introduction to the life and culture of the 60's Persia, a country more colorful and diverse than today's Iran. It shows a past that's almost forgotten, being a totalitarian monarchs but still not as reglemented as today's religious tyranny.

Los Enamoramientos

Javier Marias Los Enamoramientos  (The Infatuations) 2011 

In his latest novel, Los Enamoramientos, Javier Marias chooses a woman's perspective for the first time. The novel focuses on the blindness of love and how it can lead into a moral dilemma. The protagonist, a woman in her mid thirties, visits a coffee shop on a daily basis. And each day, she notices a couple who seem to be in a perfect relationship full of love. One day she learns from the newspaper, that the man has been murdered.

When she meets the woman again, she condoles with her on the tragic loss. She's invited to the woman's home where she meets a friend of the family who soon becomes her lover. Slowly it is revealed that this man could be connected to the murder. The man states that is was a case of assisted suicide as the dead suffered from disease. It remains unclear if this is the truth or if the protagonist's new lover committed a cold blooded murder due to his romantic interest in the deceased's spouse.
Upon realising the possible connection of her love to the killing, the protagonist distance herself from him, emotionally and physically. Even he tries to explain himself to her they end up seperating. In the aftermath, the suspect finally gains his presumed goal and forms a new couple with the dead's former partner.

Los Enamoramientos has been released originally in 2011. The German version has been released in 2012 as "Die sterblich Verliebten". An English released is planned for 2013 as "The Infatuations."