Marie Mutsuki Mockett

discusses

Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye:
A Journey

in conversation with CELESTE NG

This event includes a book signing

Date

Feb
5
Thursday
February 5, 2015
8:00 PM ET

Location

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

This event is free; no tickets are required.

Harvard Book Store welcomes MARIE MUTSUKI MOCKETT, author of Picking Bones from Ash, and prize-winning author CELESTE NG for a discussion of Mockett's latest book, Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey.

Marie Mutsuki Mockett's family owns a Buddhist temple 25 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In March 2011, after the earthquake and tsunami, radiation levels prohibited the burial of her Japanese grandfather's bones. As Japan mourned thousands of people lost in the disaster, Mockett also grieved for her American father, who had died unexpectedly.

Seeking consolation, Mockett is guided by a colorful cast of Zen priests and ordinary Japanese who perform rituals that disturb, haunt, and finally uplift her. Her journey leads her into the radiation zone in an intricate white hazmat suit; to Eiheiji, a school for Zen Buddhist monks; on a visit to a Crab Lady and Fuzzy-Headed Priest’s temple on Mount Doom; and into the "thick dark" of the subterranean labyrinth under Kiyomizu temple, among other twists and turns. From the ecstasy of a cherry blossom festival in the radiation zone to the ghosts inhabiting chopsticks, Mockett writes of both the earthly and the sublime with extraordinary sensitivity. Her unpretentious and engaging voice makes her the kind of companion a reader wants to stay with wherever she goes, even into the heart of grief itself.

Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng

Celeste Ng

Celeste Ng is the number one New York Times bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere. Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts, will be published in October 2022. Ng is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and her work has been published in over thirty languages.

Photo Credit: Kieran Kesner

Marie Mutsuki Mockett
Marie Mutsuki Mockett

Marie Mutsuki Mockett

Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s novel Picking Bones from Ash was shortlisted for the 2010 Saroyan Prize and the Asian American Literary Awards for fiction and was a finalist for the Patterson Prize. She lives in San Francisco.

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1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

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