The Afterlife of Kenzaburo Tsuruda: A Novel

(Paperback)

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KEY SELLING POINTS:

Author has a large, preexisting fan base from her time as a DJ/talk show host with FM Cocolo, an NPR-like radio station in Japan.

Historical romance is the third most popular romance subgenre on the market, just behind romantic suspense and contemporary romance. (Nielsen)

Historical fiction is a favorite genre of women readers and book clubs across the country.

AUDIENCE:

Readers interested in books set in other cultures

Readers interested in Buddhist traditions and the afterlife

Readers interested in Japanese religious traditions and folklore

Readers of historical fiction set in WWII

Readers interested in books with strong female characters who share their feelings of living in a patriarchal culture

Fans of two of the most internationally popular Japanese films: Spirited Away, about a girl who enters the spirit world, and Juzo Itamis The Funeral

Reviews

The Afterlife of Kenzaburo Tsuruda is both lyrical and moving. Elisabeth Wilkins Lombardo has written, simply, a stunning novel.
Ann Hood, author of The Book The Matters Most, Morningstar, The Red Thread, and Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine

The Afterlife of Kenzaburo Tsuruda is a beautiful, intricate novel that reminded me powerfully of Ha Jins Waiting.
Shonna Milliken Humphrey, author of Show Me Good Land and Dirt Roads and Diner Pie

With exquisite prose, an artists eye and firsthand knowledge of Japanese culture, Elisabeth Wilkins Lombardo has created a masterful, memorable first novel centered on the journeys and discoveries of Kenzaburo Tsuruda, a man astounded to find himself both dead yet very much alive in the afterlife he never believed in. Her masterful prose and deft timing keep both Kenzaburo and the reader guessing the truth right up to the last page.
Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of Sundays in America, Selling the Lite of Heaven, and Shelf Life

As fans of the great filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki know, tales of spirits and ghosts abound in Japan. Elisabeth Wilkins Lombardos first novel weaves those myths into a riveting family saga universal in its pain and drama. The secrets and lies of the Tsuruda family slowly peel away over the years following World War II, leaving its members only their stunning truths. Her knowledge of the culture and language are evident in her textured storytelling. Lyrical, haunting, and deliciously page-turning, The Afterlife of Kenzaburo Tsuruda transports us to a Japan of myth and mysticism.
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, author of Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death and the forthcoming HarperCollins novel Pastors Wives

In this remarkable debut novel, Elisabeth Wilkins Lombardo has crafted a gorgeous story filled with magic, mythology, horror and, ultimately, humanity. Set in part during World War II Japan, and told from three strong points of viewa ghost, his ailing wife, and his independent daughter The Afterlife of Kenzaburo Tsuruda is a delicate blend of language combined with strong, unforgettable characters. It is a balanced masterpiece of language and emotion that leaves the reader richer for the experience, and reluctant to leave the story at all.
Morgan Callan Rogers, author of Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea

The Afterlife of Kenzaburo Tsuruda is a gorgeous and powerful story about love, mortality, the afterlife, and the legacy of a war that continues to shape Japanese culture in ways that Americans can only begin to understand. Elisabeth Wilkins Lombardo has a gentle and careful eye: for the inner lives of her characters, for the quiet details of nature, and for the intricacies of a nation during a period of vast transformation. This is a book that takes on all the big themes of literature, yet frames them within the subtle details of her characters lives. Told through multiple narratives and across a swirling fifty-year chronology, Wilkins Lombardo reveals deeper and deeper layers of meaning that makes this simple story of an old man's death relentlessly complex. The Afterlife of Kenzaburo Tsuruda is a book that speaks to the human condition at every level: the personal, romantic, intellectual, political, and cultural.
Jaed Coffin, author of A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants

Author Bio

Elisabeth Wilkins Lombardo was awarded the 2009 PEN/New England Fiction Discovery Prize for the unpublished manuscript of her novel, Obon. She went to Japan as an exchange student in college and stayed for ten more years, traveling extensively throughout Asia from her home in Kobe, Japan, where she worked as a radio and TV personality, teacher, and writer. Her prize-winning essay about the Great Hanshin Earthquake, After the Quake, was translated into Japanese and subsequently published in an anthology of the same name. Her stories have been published in The Japan Times, The Daily Yomiuri, Mothering, Motherhood (Singapore), and Kansai Timeout. Elisabeth received her MFA from the Stonecoast Creative Writing Program in 2005. At the time of her death in 2015, Wilkins Lombardo was the editor of Empowering Parents, an award-winning online parenting magazine with a growing international readership of more than 500,000. She lived in Cape Elizabeth, Maine with her husband and son.