The Easy Life in Kamusari

Written by Shion Miura

Narrated by Brian Nishii

From Shion Miura, the award-winning author of The Great Passage, comes a rapturous novel where the contemporary and the traditional meet amid the splendor of Japan’s mountain way of life.

Yuki Hirano is just out of high school when his parents enroll him, against his will, in a forestry training program in the remote mountain village of Kamusari. No phone, no internet, no shopping. Just a small, inviting community where the most common expression is “take it easy.”

At first, Yuki is exhausted, fumbles with the tools, asks silly questions, and feels like an outcast. Kamusari is the last place a city boy from Yokohama wants to spend a year of his life. But as resistant as he might be, the scent of the cedars and the staggering beauty of the region have a pull.

Yuki learns to fell trees and plant saplings. He begins to embrace local festivals, he’s mesmerized by legends of the mountain, and he might be falling in love. In learning to respect the forest on Mt. Kamusari for its majestic qualities and its inexplicable secrets, Yuki starts to appreciate Kamusari’s harmony with nature and its ancient traditions.

In this warm and lively coming-of-age story, Miura transports us from the trappings of city life to the trials, mysteries, and delights of a mythical mountain forest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Translator: Juliet Winters Carpenter
• Release date: Nov 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781713612216

Shion Miura

Shion Miura, the daughter of a well-known Japanese classics scholar, started an online book-review column before she graduated from Waseda University. In 2000, she made her fiction debut with Kakuto suru mono ni mar (A Passing Grade for Those Who Fight), a novel based in part on her own experiences during her job hunt. In 2006, she won the Naoki Prize for her linked-story collection Mahoro ekimae Tada Benriken (The Handymen in Mahoro Town). Her other prominent novels include Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru (The Wind Blows Hard), Kogure-so monogatari (The Kogure Apartments), and Ano ie ni kurasu yonin no onna (The Four Women Living in That House). Fune o amu (The Great Passage) received the Booksellers Award in Japan in 2012 and was developed into a major motion picture. She has also published more than fifteen collections of essays and is a manga aficionado.

Reviews for The Easy Life in Kamusari

[Lucia Garcia · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It is a sweet and easy going take of a nice and naive teenager discovering what it is to become an adult.
It did give more forestry information that I care to know, but it places you in the mountains very easily.

[quickmind · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a fun little comfort read. Our protagonist, or more accurately, our narrator, Yuki, is forcibly given a job in a small village in the mountains, where he is taught the skill of forestry. The way of life described in this area is very laidback and rural, with few modern conveniences, but the townsfolk have a deep connection to nature and the mountain upon which they reside. Yuki slowly learns about forestry, life in the village, and the people and their traditions. There's a bit of magical realism thrown in, with the gods of Mt. Kamusari making themselves known here and there. Overall it was a nice read, nothing too dramatic or exciting, but just comfortable and warm.

[labfs39 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Yoki Hirano graduates from high school with no plans for his future. His parents, absorbed with their first grandchild, bundle him off to a remote village to learn forestry. Astonished at his banishment to the backwoods, Yoki is at first resentful and tries to run back to Yokohama. But slowly the villagers, the lovely Nao, and the forest itself become reasons to stay.This was the first time I have read a Japanese young adult novel, and I might not have read it had I known. I'm glad I did, however. The author researched forestry and interviewed dozens of loggers in the course of writing the book, and I found the descriptions of the forest, the work the foresters do, and the Shinto rituals they practice to be fascinating. I'm inspired to do a little more research of my own.The novel is rather male-centric, although given the nature of the job in the patriarchal society, it's not surprising. The women are portrayed as strong and, in the case of Nao, daring, but their stories are not explored. The village and the work is romanticized, rather like an ode to the life there. Social issues such as the aging of the rural population, the decline of the forestry industry, and the problems inherent in patriarchy are there, lurking in the subtext, but not unpackaged. I think this could have been a very interesting novel for adults if they had been.