This short, haunting novel, set in medieval Japan, is a literary gem. The narrator is Isaku, a nine-year-old boy living in a remote fishing village. To save the family from starvation, his father has sold himself into indentured servitude, leaving Isaku and his strong-willed mother to care for three younger children. Forced to grow up well before his time, Isaku is faced with a number of mysteries, not least among them his own nascent sexuality and the legend of "O-fune-sama" - the merchant ships that wreck offshore from time to time, providing the village with unexpected bounty.
'Shipwrecks' is a starkly written, richly evocative novel about human fate - a masterpiece of contemporary Japanese fiction, which was a bestseller in Japan and received outstanding reviews in America.
