Isaku is a nine-year-old boy living in a remote, desperately poor fishing village on the coast of Japan.
Shipwrecks, the first novel by the great Japanese writer Yoshimura to be translated into English, is a stunningly powerful, Gothic tale of fate and retribution..
But Isaku learns that its cargo is far deadlier than could ever be imagined.
One day a ship founders on the rocks.
When a ship runs aground, the villagers slaughter the crew and loot the cargo for rice, wine, and rich delicacies.
But this industry serves another, more sinister purpose: the fires of the salt cauldrons lure passing ships toward the shore and onto rocky shoals.
His people catch barely enough fish to live on, and so must distill salt to sell to neighboring villages.
Isaku is a nine-year-old boy living in a remote, desperately poor fishing village on the coast of Japan
