Ubasute is the ancient Japanese tradition of sacrificing the lives of the elderly – by leaving them to die in the mountains – during times of famine or drought in order to conserve resources for the hext generation to survive..
Dendera, Yuya Sato’s novel about an elderly woman who awakens in a strange new place, plays off that tradition in a unique new way. The elderly woman, Kayu Saitoh, awakens not alone in the mountains, but in a utopian community created over many decades by other elderly women like her.
Now though, there is a new threat – a hungry mother bear.
Dendera is being released in North America on February 17th, in print and eBook, by the VIZ Media imprint Haikasoru. For further details, follow the jump.
VIZ MEDIA’S HAIKASORU LITERARY IMPRINT DEBUTS YUYA SATO’S EVOCATIVE NOVEL DENDERA
Moving Novel Debuts In February About An Elderly’s Woman’s Resilience And Discovery Of A Hidden Utopian Community After Society Casts Her Aside
San Francisco, CA, January 22, 2015 – VIZ Media’s Haikasoru imprint opens 2015 with its first release of the New Year. DENDERA is the stark and moving novel by award winning author Yuya Sato set to be published on February 17th. An eBook edition also will debut on the same day for the Amazon Kindle, Apple’s iBooks Store, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Book Store, the Kobo eBooks Store, and the Google Play store.
DENDERA focuses on an ancient Japanese practice of leading the elderly to die in the mountains during times of drought or famine in order to ensure enough resources are available for the next generation to survive. The book was inspired by the classic novel, The Ballad of Narayama by Shichiro Fukazawa, which was notably adapted into a feature film directed by Shohei Imamura and won the prestigious Palme d’Or award at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. DENDERA was also turned into a feature film in 2011 that was directed by Daisuke Tengan, the son of director Shohei Imamura.
Haikasoru publishes some of the most compelling contemporary Japanese science fiction and fantasy stories for English-speaking audiences, and is the first imprint based in the U.S. dedicated to Japanese science fiction and fantasy in translation.
DENDERA · Print MSRP: $15.99 U.S. / $16.99 CAN · Available February 17th
When Kayu Saitoh wakes up, she is in an unfamiliar place. Taken to a snowy mountainside, she was left there by her family and her village according to the tradition of sacrificing the lives of the elderly for the benefit of the young. Kayu was supposed to have passed quickly into the afterlife. Instead, she finds herself in Dendera, a utopian community built over decades by old women who, like her, were abandoned. Together, they must now face a new threat: a hungry mother bear.
“DENDERA is a captivating work that presents a strong female lead character and evocative story based around ubasute, the custom of leaving the elderly to die via exposure, a recurring theme in Japanese literature,” says Nick Mamatas, Editor. “This fabulist tale will be of interest to both fans of fantasy and literary fiction.”
Author Yuya Sato was born 1980 and is a writer of “strange fiction,” which features fantastic or horrific concepts treated in a refined literary style. Some of his short works of fiction have appeared in English in the mixed manga/prose anthology series Faust. His novel 1000 Novels and Backbeard won the Yukio Mishima Prize, one of Japan’s highest literary awards.
For additional information DENDERA and the Haikasoru imprint, please visit the dedicated website at www.haikasoru.com.
About VIZ Media, LLC
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, VIZ Media distributes, markets and licenses the best anime and manga titles direct from Japan. Owned by three of Japan’s largest manga and animation companies, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media has the most extensive library of anime and manga for English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa. With its popular digital manga anthology WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP and blockbuster properties like NARUTO, BLEACH and ONE PIECE, VIZ Media offers cutting-edge action, romance and family friendly properties for anime, manga, science fiction and fantasy fans of all ages. VIZ Media properties are available as graphic novels, DVDs, animated television series, feature films, downloadable and streaming video and a variety of consumer products. Learn more about VIZ Media, anime and manga at www.VIZ.com.