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 threads 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.
About the Author :
Erika Kobayashi was born in 1978 in Tokyo, Japan. She 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 seventh Tekken Heterotopia Literary Prize in 2020 for her novel Trinity, Trinity, Trinity, and nominated for the twenty-seventh Mishima Yukio Award and the 151st Akutagawa Award for her novel Breakfast with Madame Curie. She currently lives and works in Tokyo.
Emily Woo Zeller is an Audie and Earphones Award-winning narrator, voice-over artist, actor, dancer, and choreographer. AudioFile magazine named her one of the Best Voices of 2013. Her voice-over career includes work in animated film and television in Southeast Asia.
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.
Review :
"A luminous and penetrating history of our shared present."
-- "Mark Seltzer, author of The Official World"
"Emily Woo Zeller superbly narrates this imaginative reflection on Japanese citizens and their relationship with radiation. Zeller's performance is transcendent...She draws precise portraits of the mostly unnamed characters and makes even the fragmented plot memorable listening."
-- "AudioFile"
"Explores the nuclear trauma of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries...A gripping narrative that this reader could not put down."
-- "Janice Carole Brown, author of Tarnished Words"
"Kobayashi gathers world-historical, feminist, and ecological yarns to crochet a web of 'terrorist' intrigue...Fast-paced, funny, and thrillingly conceptual."
-- "Margherita Long, author of Care, Kin, Crackup"
"This compelling novel...examines the shifting sands of memory and interconnected identity in a fluid landscape shaped by nuclear radiation, social media, and social connection. Highly recommended."
-- "Library Journal (starred review)"
