AL NORTE LA MONTAÑA, AL SUR EL LAGO, AL OESTE EL CAMINO, AL ESTE EL RIO

South of Kyoto, next to the Keihan Line, just one stop from the city, lies a monastery. A labyrinthine climb leads the grandson of the Prince of Genji to this secluded spot. Not far from there, they say, must lie the most beautiful garden in the world. He wanders throughout the monastery grounds as if moved by an inner force. A subtle construction has shaped nature; everything has its place, and every shape its meaning. And so a perceptive and meticulous gaze shifts over nature, over the plants, the wind, and the birds, but also over the architecture, the pagodas, the terraces, and the courtyards. Letting the small become grand, displacing the secret into the spotlight, tracing the beauty of the everyday—this is what László Krasznahorkai does in this literary journey to Japan, a book of intoxicating, fascinating prose that transports us to the ideological and sentimental universe of Japan.