Trinity, Trinity, Trinity: A Novel
"Delicately weaves generations of women to the lasting wounds of nuclear destruction and the hubris of war. A unique and unforgettable novel." —Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Woman of Light

A literary thriller about the effects of nuclear power on the mind, body, and recorded history of three generations of Japanese women.


Nine years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, Japan is preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. An unnamed narrator wakes up in a cold, sterile room, unable to recall her past. Across the country, the elderly begin to hear voices emanating from black stones, compelling them to behave in strange and unpredictable ways. The voices are a symptom of a disease called “Trinity.”

As details about the disease come to light, we encounter a thread of linked histories—Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, the discovery of radiation, the nuclear arms race, the subsequent birth of nuclear energy, and the disaster in Fukushima. The thread linking these events begins to unravel in the lead-up to a terrorist attack at the Japan National Olympic Stadium. 
 
A work of speculative fiction reckoning with the consequences of the past and continued effects of nuclear power, Trinity, Trinity, Trinity follows the lives of three generations of women as they grapple with the legacy of mankind's quest for light and power.
1140356711
Trinity, Trinity, Trinity: A Novel
"Delicately weaves generations of women to the lasting wounds of nuclear destruction and the hubris of war. A unique and unforgettable novel." —Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Woman of Light

A literary thriller about the effects of nuclear power on the mind, body, and recorded history of three generations of Japanese women.


Nine years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, Japan is preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. An unnamed narrator wakes up in a cold, sterile room, unable to recall her past. Across the country, the elderly begin to hear voices emanating from black stones, compelling them to behave in strange and unpredictable ways. The voices are a symptom of a disease called “Trinity.”

As details about the disease come to light, we encounter a thread of linked histories—Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, the discovery of radiation, the nuclear arms race, the subsequent birth of nuclear energy, and the disaster in Fukushima. The thread linking these events begins to unravel in the lead-up to a terrorist attack at the Japan National Olympic Stadium. 
 
A work of speculative fiction reckoning with the consequences of the past and continued effects of nuclear power, Trinity, Trinity, Trinity follows the lives of three generations of women as they grapple with the legacy of mankind's quest for light and power.
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Trinity, Trinity, Trinity: A Novel

Trinity, Trinity, Trinity: A Novel

Trinity, Trinity, Trinity: A Novel

Trinity, Trinity, Trinity: A Novel

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Overview

"Delicately weaves generations of women to the lasting wounds of nuclear destruction and the hubris of war. A unique and unforgettable novel." —Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Woman of Light

A literary thriller about the effects of nuclear power on the mind, body, and recorded history of three generations of Japanese women.


Nine years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, Japan is preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. An unnamed narrator wakes up in a cold, sterile room, unable to recall her past. Across the country, the elderly begin to hear voices emanating from black stones, compelling them to behave in strange and unpredictable ways. The voices are a symptom of a disease called “Trinity.”

As details about the disease come to light, we encounter a thread of linked histories—Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, the discovery of radiation, the nuclear arms race, the subsequent birth of nuclear energy, and the disaster in Fukushima. The thread linking these events begins to unravel in the lead-up to a terrorist attack at the Japan National Olympic Stadium. 
 
A work of speculative fiction reckoning with the consequences of the past and continued effects of nuclear power, Trinity, Trinity, Trinity follows the lives of three generations of women as they grapple with the legacy of mankind's quest for light and power.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781662602108
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
Publication date: 06/13/2023
Pages: 240
Sales rank: 1,075,684
Product dimensions: 5.06(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Erika Kobayashi is a novelist and visual artist based in Tokyo. Kobayashi creates works that are inspired by things invisible to the eye: time and history, family and memory, and the traces left in places. She was awarded the 44th Japan Sherlock Holmes Club Encouragement Award in 2022 for her novel His Last Bow (Kodansha,) the 7th Tekken Heterotopia Literary Prize in 2020 for her novel Trinity, Trinity, Trinity (Shūeisha,) and won the  the 2022-2023 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes (JUSFC) for the English translation of Japanese literature for Trinity, Trinity, Trinity, translated by Brian Bergstrom. Trinity, Trinity, Trinity is her latest novel and her story collection Sunrise: Radiant Stories, is forthcoming from Astra House in 2023.


TRANSLATOR BIO: Brian Bergstrom is a lecturer and translator who has lived in Chicago, Kyoto, and Yokohama. His writing and translations have appeared in publications including Granta, Aperture, Lit Hub, Mechademia, Japan Forum, positions: asia critique, and The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. He is the editor and principal translator of We, the Children of Cats by Tomoyuki Hoshino (PM Press), which was longlisted for the 2013 Best Translated Book Award. His translation of Trinity, Trinity, Trinity by Erika Kobayashi (Astra House, 2022) won the 2022 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. He is currently based in Montréal, Canada.

Read an Excerpt

Prologue

Lately, even when it’s light outside, I find I can’t tell if it’s morning or evening, if the sun is coming up or on its way back down. When I force my eyelids apart to check, all I see is a wide plane of sky the color of burning.

I blink, and blink again.

Looking over from my pillow, I catch sight of a clock.

5:23

The numbers stand out clearly on its display. The clock is cheap, plastic.
The crocheted lace doily lying beneath it is more to my liking, a pineapple motif woven into its pattern.

I try to lift my hand to trace the pineapple with my finger.
But it’s heavy as lead.

And not just my hand, my whole body is heavy, encased in lead.

Lead.

It doesn’t feel like a metaphor. It feels literal, as if now I know the exact feeling of lead being poured over my whole body.

Still, I feel as though touching the lace would unlock something—would allow me to remember more than I do. I concentrate my energy into my hand. My fingers brush against something; it feels like a remote control of some sort. I grab it and notice trailing down from it a thick cord.
What does it connect to?

There’s an orange bump in its center. Some sort of button?

My hand slowly grips the control, and I use all my might to push the button.

A sudden rumbling begins, accompanied by shaking.

The ground begins to shift beneath me. The shaking sounds like the growl of a beast.

My eyes fly open, as does my mouth, as I try to scream a scream that refuses to come out.

But it’s not the ground that’s shifting.

It’s the bed. The section beneath my back and the section beneath my legs are rising at the same time.

Startled, I throw the controller away. The rumbling abates; the shaking subsides.

I look around.

All that’s visible through the window is sky.

Where is this place? Who am I?

I seem to have forgotten.

I seem to have been asleep for quite a long time.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
 
Prologue
 
SUNRISE
 
8:00
9:00
9:30
10:00
 
DAYTIME
 
12:00
12:30
13:00
 
SUNSET
 
14:00
15:00
16:30
17:30
 
Three-Person’d God
 
REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
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