Woman Who Brings the Rain

As precise and nuanced as Japanese calligraphy, the Woman Who Brings the Rain is a memoir of the author’s stay on the remote Hokkaido island in the far north of Japan, has at its heart the mountain, Yotei-san, the region’s iconic equivalent to Mount Fuji. As much about learning a language (with connotations of ‘reading’ a wild landscape) as it is about nature, this dignified and nuanced work evokes what is cultured and cultivated, and yet also honours the wild; the untranslatable. With its themes of seasonal transformation, the peripheral, folklore, loneliness and learning to belong, this work takes a personal philosophical stance in relation to the centre and the periphery.

What do our staff think?

I thoroughly enjoyed the centrality of Yōtei-San, the mountain, and how its inclusion really pulls the entire story together. The fact it’s written by a Welsh author awards it extra brownie points too. Definitely recommend.