Corner of the sea

Author: Takashi Sagawa
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: This book is one of the Midnight Express Trilogy. A travel literature masterpiece that has captivated Japan for over two decades and sold over a million copies! Midnight Express is the code name used among foreign prisoners in Turkish prisons. They refer to escaping prison as "hitching a ride on the Midnight Express." The author views his own travels as a form of "escape"—a journey of spatial wandering transformed into the threads of words, fueled by a compassionate heart for the suffering of others—emotional ups and downs as the lifeblood of his writing, unfolding a social tapestry of joys and sorrows of people from various strata across the countries and regions of the Eurasian continent. After leaving Iran, the author enters Turkey, delivering the news of death to the Turkish lover of a Japanese painter; then he arrives in Greece, where he engages in a dreamlike conversation with a woman who drinks coffee instead of tea; all roads lead to Rome, and the art of Rome leaves the author utterly stunned, making him believe there is no art beyond it. It was also in Rome that he spends a delightful "Roman Holiday" with the wife of the Japanese painter. Thus, the author travels to the westernmost corner of the European continent and returns to Paris, heading straight for London, finally completing his planned Eurasian wandering. Yet, the author's life journey remains unfinished.