Lead Review

• Book: Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight
• Location: Tokyo
• Author: Alison Watts (translator), Riku Onda

Review Author: Tina Hartas

This is a short volume, billed as a psychological thriller. I get why it has fallen into this genre but there is something quite different about this novel that really isn’t easy to categorise.

Two people are spending the last night in the apartment where they have been living together. They are about to go their separate ways. Their furniture has gone and the tiny living space is anointed by a simple light bulb. They fetch in food and drink beer and each wants to ascertain that the other is responsible for a recent and traumatic event, which seemingly lies at the root of their subsequent dissonance. They were trekking in a mountain range and their guide died – he fell to his death. Each thinks the other is responsible. We are told that they are called Aki and Hiro but the story floats and bucks around, disorienting the reader, so that nothing is at it seems. Those may well not be their names. Each chapter opens and you have to ascertain from which character’s perspective you are hearing the story and musings.

As the night gets darker, so do their reminiscences. They trawl back to their childhoods, which contextualises the current situation.

The prose is sharp and tailored, well translated by Alison Watts. It is a discombobulating story that rolls along, inventive and compelling and the title mirrors the ducking and diving as the story progresses – now you see the nub of the story, now you lose the thread. An intriguing premise.

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