Fog Island Mountains

February 2, 2015
Voice actor Ikeda's elegant and gracious voice perfectly compliments the style of Bailat-Jones's debut novel, which draws its inspiration from kitsune (fox or spirit fox) in Japanese folklore. Alec Chester, a South African expat, and his wife, Kanae, are living an ordinary life in Komachi, a town situated near their Japanese island's volcanic mountains, when Alec learns he is very ill. On the day of his surgery, Kanae disappears, wishing only to escape the truth of Alec's illness. She runs into a childhood friend and, impulsively, makes a terrible decision. Simultaneously, a dangerous typhoon menaces the island with pelting rain, strong wind, and falling tree limbs. In the midst of the typhoon, Alec slips out of the hospital, with his family suspecting he has left to commit suicide. Kanae takes her bike to search for him, "no longer running away from Alec but toward him." Ikeda's soothing voice and spare words quietly portray Kanae's intense turmoil throughout the story, reflecting that sometimes less is more. Nimble transitions are made between Alec's South African dialect, American English, and Japanese. Through her storytelling, the mysterious narratorâa folklorist and animal healerâreveals the fragility of life and displays bravery in the face of illness and the sometimes-selfish nature of love. A Tantor paperback. Digital Download: Audible Studios.

November 3, 2014
Bailat-Jones presents a delicate debut novel that is something of a poem in disguise. Indeed, her narrator, storyteller Azami Kitauchi, identifies this work as a poem in its first pages. The narrative captures a brief moment in time, the juxtaposition of the onslaught of a typhoon with the dreadful news of terminal cancer for its protagonist, South African Alec Chester. Alec has made his home in Komachi on the Japanese island of Kyushu for over 40 years, marrying a woman named Kanae and raising a family, and teaching English. In spare prose, Bailat-Jones sketches haiku-like images that combine emotion with sensations of the natural world around Alec. As the wall of the typhoon hits, Alec and Kanae are struggling to find one another. Azami's own story introduces elements of Japanese folklore, bringing contrast to the painfully real narrative of the Chesters. A true rendering of the Japanese "kitsune" folklore tradition, this is a lovely look at the strength and grace that can be found in the face of death, and the sorrow of the knowledge of passing beauty.