Genichiro Takahashi
Genichiro Takahashi is a Japanese novelist.
Life and career
Takahashi was born in Onomichi, Hiroshima prefecture and attended the Economics Department of Yokohama National University without graduating. As a radical student, he was arrested and spent half a year in prison, which caused Takahashi to develop a form of aphasia. As part of his rehabilitation, his doctors encouraged him to start writing. Critics have compared him to Thomas Pynchon, Donald Barthelme, and Italo Calvino.Takahashi's first novel, Sayonara, Gyangutachi, was published in 1982, and won the Gunzo Literary Award for First Novels. It has been acclaimed by critics as one of the most important works of postwar Japanese literature. It has been translated into English, French, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Czech.
In addition, his Yuga de kansho-teki na Nippon-yakyuu won the Mishima Yukio Prize in 1988, and his Nihon bungaku seisui shi received the Itoh Sei Literature Award.
Since April 2005, he has been a professor at the International Department of Meiji Gakuin University. Takahashi's current wife, Tanikawa Naoko and former wife Muroi Yuzuki were also both writers.
In 2012, Sayonara Christopher Robin won the Tanizaki Prize.
He is also a noted essayist, covering a diverse field of topics ranging from literary criticism to horse-racing. His essays on popular culture and current events regularly appear in the Asahi Shimbun and in English translation on their website.
Works
Novels
Sayonara, gyangutachi, 1982, Kodansha.- * English translation by Michael Emmerich, 2008, Vertical.
- * French translation by Jean-François Chaix, 2013, Books Edition.
- * Italian translation by Gianluca Coci, 2008, Rizzoli, 2022, Atmosphere Libri.
- * Brazilian Portuguese translation by Jefferson J. Teixeira, 2006, Ediouro.Niji no achira ni: oovaa za reinbou, 1984, Chuoo Koron Shinsha.Jon Renon tai kaseijin, 1985, Kadokawa Shoten.Yuga de kansho-teki na Nippon-yakyuu, 1988, Kawade Shobo ShinshaPengin mura ni hi wa ochite, 1989, Shueisha.Wakusei P-13 no himitsu, 1990, Kadokawa Shoten. Goosutobasutaazu, 1997, Kodansha.A.da.ru.to, 1999, Shufu to Seikatsu-sha.Nihon bungaku seisui shi, 2001, Kodansha.Gojira, 2001, Shinchosha.Kannou shousetsuka, 2002, Asahi Shinbun-sha.Itsuka souru torein ni noru hi made, 2008, Shueisha.Aku to tatakau, 2010, Kawade Shobo Shinsha.Koisuru genpatsu, 2011, Kodansha.
- * French translation by Sylvain Cardonnel, 2013, Books Edition.Ginga tetsudo no kanata ni, 2013, Shueisha.Bokutachi wa kono kuni wo konna fuu ni aisuru koto ni kimeta, 2017, Shueisha.